O, Honey Honey...You got me wanting you!

There is a whole new buzz happening at the East Palo Alto Charter School.

Parents...when is the last time you made a salad from all homegrown fruits and vegetables?   Your kids are doing just that!  They are learning how to grow a garden full of really yummy food.  Preparing the soil, planting the seeds, weeding, caring for and finally picking the lettuce, potatoes, strawberries, tomatoes, etc...is the hard part.  The best part is going to the cafeteria and making lunch out of all the things you've been growing in your garden. As parents, you may already know how to do all this, but to many of our kids this is new and important stuff to learn. 

Collective Roots encourages our kids to make some very valuable connections like where our food comes from and what it takes to create a sustainable garden. Right now, there's a lot of interest in creating a "pollinator friendly" garden.  Pollinators are bees, butterflies, bats and even beetles (just to name some of the "b" helpers).  Pollinators provide 1/3 of all the food we eat and they are in real trouble all around the world.  Ask your child to tell you "WHY".  She knows that things like misuse of pesticides and loss of pollinator friendly plants are creating a real threat to our food supply.  He knows that the same bees that produce our honey are also needed to produce 90% of all flowering plants.  Without bees, almonds, oranges, tomatoes even roses would not exist.

Our kids are pretty smart.  These new "farmers" are really excited about what they are doing.  Anthony, a 4th grader, took me (a sophomore at Stanford) on a tour of the garden.  He said, "I like this food a lot...it's healthier for me and I feel better when I eat it!"  He is so into gardening that he has planted his own garden at home.  Collective Roots is planting the seeds for a new generation of consumers who are eco-friendly, aware, self reliant...and healthy.  (Thank you EPACS....now I'm going home and planting a garden, too!)

Written by Erica Swanson

6/13/2008

Stanford University, Community Writing Project / Politics of Food / PWR 2