WIngfield High School

Wingfield High School is in the process of distinguishing itself from other high schools in the district by offering innovative approaches to its educational based curriculum. One of the many ways we are pushing forward with this initiative is by developing a food based learning incubator that incorporates a farm to table style philosophy. There are several strategic goals that we at Wingfield will accomplish with the assistance of the WholeKids Garden Grant. Community reinvestment, hands on educational workshops, the Wingfield Culinary Academy, as well as, assistance in job placement are all part of the foundation of what we are striving to achieve.
As technology rapidly changes the way we as humans conduct business and live our lives, we seem to forget many of the basic fundamentals of life. Fruits and vegetables are often overlooked in supermarkets by many because they never experience the journey from seed to final product. Children living in the urban jungle have little understanding of one of life’s many treasures; farming. Having a garden, our students will have a clear perspective of what it takes to produce food from seed. Our garden will be maintained collaboratively with the help of faculty, students and the greater community. We want the educational process to transcend from the school into the community in order to have a much broader impact.
Many families in South Jackson have limited knowledge and access to nutritious food. Therefore, we are initiating an outreach program to assist in drawing citizens of our community to our program. If we want to build stronger bonds in our community, we must do so through reinvesting time and effort into educating the families that we serve about healthy living. Community members will be able to learn not only about gardening, but will be able to learn an array of culinary preparations using our garden fresh produce. Faculty and staff at Wingfield recognize that there are various monetary challenges that our families face, so we have outlined three basic priorities that each recipe should follow.
Food that we prepare should always be sourced from the garden or locally to promote local producers. Keeping our money in the community is a positive way to generate business growth which in return means more potential for job growth in Mississippi. Secondly, ingredients that we use must be accessible to those who choose to recreate the dishes we prepare. The third criteria that must be incorporated into the program is that each recipe must utilize as few ingredients and or cooking utensils as possible. The goal is to streamline the program to create a logical flow in the educational experience that we deliver to our community.
Wingfield is also looking to initiate changes in the way we deliver our traditional based curriculum. For instance, the addition of a garden is a valuable asset to both our science and math departments. Although we have the means to demonstrate a host of scientific experiments, there truly is no replacement for the types of real world data that we would be able to source from our garden. In order to prepare our students for a prosperous future, we want to make our course work relevant, while at the same time shining the light on potential career paths for our students. Learning should be fun; therefore we must go the extra mile to enhance the lessons to promote better understandings of complex subject content. In the inner city, the prospect of finding valuable job opportunities can be elusive at best. What many students fail to realize is that Mississippi offers a treasure trove of job possibilities in agriculture. It is our responsibility as Mississippians to recognize and develop the next generation of agricultural workers to ensure a brighter outcome for our state.
In working with limited state and federal funds to initiate change in our community, Wingfield is looking outside the box by reaching out to foundations such as the WholeKids Foundation. With the assistance of Whole Foods, we will be able to effectively fund our community garden and be one step closer to changing even more lives in our community. Collaboration with Whole Foods is an important way of educating communities in and around South Jackson on how to develop overall healthier lifestyles. Healthy lifestyles translate to improved dietary intake, healthcare and an overall sense of well being. Jackson, Mississippi is honored to have Whole Foods support in our communities and we at Wingfield High School look forward to the ability to collaborate on ways to make Jackson a healthier place to call home.