Would our kids forego preservatives and high-fructose corn syrup if they were given the necessary tools to appreciate the alternative? Could they be taught to care about the future of the planet? Judging by chef Alice Waters’ success, the answers are yes and yes. As Founder of Edible Schoolyard, Waters runs the program in Berkeley, California that educates middle school students in an integrated greenhouse, kitchen, classroom environment. Students at Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School grow and eventually cook meals with a wide variety of produce, all the while learning important lessons in science and sustainable agriculture.
Waters’ program has received such widespread acclaim since its inception in 1995 that it’s inspired a network of affiliated grow/learn operations across the country. And it’s finally reached all the way to the East Coast. The latest ESY affiliate is planned for the Gravesend neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York. Volunteers will begin excavating the quarter-acre parking lot behind P.S. 216 this summer to make way for a $1.6 million solar-powered facility.
-Trevor Aune
(Via New York Times)
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