Feeding children a love of nature

Palo Alto Weekly, Tuesday, December 5, 2006

Feeding children a love of nature
Hands-on garden program teaches nutrition and environmentalism

by Sue Dremann

The seventh-graders pulled their jackets and sweatshirts on and zipped up tight against the clear late-November chill last week.

Ruben Ruvalcaba, Camry Davenport, Marco Chavez and Tyrees Carney headed toward the garden beside the bleak fawn-grey marshlands surrounding the East Palo Alto Charter School. There, colorful murals of giant sunflowers and butterflies, pumpkins and baskets overflowing with red apples adorned the courtyard walls.

The students were on their way to pick radishes for salads they would make themselves in the school cafeteria as part of an elective class run by Collective Roots Garden Project, which aims to teach children about the relationship between caring for the Earth and good nutrition.

A ring-necked pheasant clucked loudly, taking off with a thunderous flapping of wings -- one of dozens of natural wonders the children experience every day, said Tori Derr, executive director of the nonprofit program, which established the 12,500 square-foot garden here three years ago.

The garden provides more than sustenance for the body. More than 400 students in kindergarten through eighth grade learn about science, environmental sustainability and nutrition in a garden-learning program aligned with California science standards. Funded in part through the Palo Alto Weekly Holiday Fund, the program invites impoverished children to explore the web of life.

A second-grade class learned about the lifecycle of butterflies by planting a butterfly garden; fourth-grade students planted and learned about a medicinal and native-plant garden. Some garden beds teach mathematics concepts; others are used for food production.

Middle-school students prepare a salad bar from the garden produce; and older students built a "worm cafe," to which students add lunch scraps to worm-composting bins, turning them into rich compost for the garden.

"The worms are getting really fat," Derr said, grinning.

Meanwhile, parents and families work together in the garden on community work days -- a way to export good-nutrition practices into the home, she said.

In teacher Katie Kling's fourth-grade class, students talked excitedly about what last year's $7,500 grant from the Weekly's Holiday Fund has meant to them. The money helped develop a curriculum that can be replicated in other schools, according to Derr.

"Without the garden, we wouldn't have healthy bodies," a boy said.

"We wouldn't know what 'organic' means," another student added.

The children squirmed excitedly when they talked about a field trip to Vida Verde, a nature education center that provides free, outdoor and overnight field trips for at-risk youth. The children's eyes widened as they recalled learning how to find shelter in the wilderness, to identify poison oak and how tufts of Spanish moss can be pulled from trees to make a Band-Aid.

Collective Roots gives kids who often never leave their neighborhood a chance to experience their interconnectedness to a broader world.

"Without the money, we would never have fun stuff at this school," a child said.

Before Halloween, the children made "spider snacks" -- a black spider made of pretzel-stick legs, pomegranate-seed eyeballs and black beans embedded into a bread body -- that was both biology lesson and edible treat.

The garden also complements in-classroom lessons.

"They can literally walk right out the door," to see their lessons in action, teacher Kling said.

The children are free to pick ripe strawberries -- and even radishes -- which some children hadn't tasted before and had come to like, they said.

The garden is a lifeline for many children, Derr said. The harvested vegetables may be the only fresh food some kids eat all day.

Derr had eighth-graders keep food journals, where they record the foods they have eaten. The lists were revealing, she said.

For some kids, every meal they listed was from the school; for others, the only other meals were from McDonald's or other fast food," she said.

Fully 87 percent are on the federal free and reduced-fee lunch program, she added, where they receive breakfast, lunch and a snack. The garden provides fresh vegetables and fruit for a balanced meal.

Collective Roots has received past funding from the Weekly Holiday Fund, the Community Foundation Silicon Valley, Christensen Fund and Bon Apetit Management Co.

Additional funds this year would help get the Collective Roots curriculum into other schools where needy children can benefit, such as Belle Haven Elementary School in Menlo Park, she said.

The program took a significant financial hit in June, when a hazardous chemical accident at nearby Romic Environmental Technologies caused everything in the vibrant garden to be torn up and replaced -- in case of contamination.

"There was nothing," Derr said, upon their return.

But Collective Roots used the tragedy as a teaching opportunity to discuss human footprint's impacts on wildlife.

The fourth-grade class is studying Santa Cruz Island, and how its specialized habitat was affected by DDT and other chemicals, causing bald-eagle eggs to disintegrate and the birds' population to plummet.

The garden's recent destruction brought that lesson home, Derr said.

And replanting the garden is instilling a new lesson -- one of hope.

The Palo Alto Weekly Holiday Fund supports local nonprofit organizations, and the campaign runs through mid-January. As of Dec. 4, 182 donors have given $58,515, which local community foundations have matched for a total of $117,030.