FoodCorps service members from across the state convene in Santa Cruz to learn how to connect kids to real food.
The school food movement in California got a national boost this year as FoodCorps expanded its program to the Golden State.
Now in its third year, FoodCorps, a national organization that addresses childhood obesity and food insecurity, has 125 service members serving in 15 states. California, Hawaii and New Jersey were added to the list this year. As a member of the AmeriCorps Service Network, FoodCorps recruits and trains a team of emerging leaders and places them in underserved areas for a one year term of service, where they teach kids about what healthy food is and where it comes from, build and tend school gardens, and bring high-quality local food into public school cafeterias.
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FoodCorps California, is being managed by co-hosts Life Lab and the Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF).
Life Lab has been a state and national leader in the development and implementation of farm and garden-based science and nutrition education for the last three decades. It has also developed curricula and workshops to teach aspiring educators how to build and sustain their own gardens and use the gardens to bring learning to life by connecting their lessons to Common Core State Standards through hands-on Project Based Learning opportunities. The Growing Classroom, among other Life Lab developed curricula, is being used by schools and garden educators nationwide.
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“FoodCorps has been an incredible addition to the programs and support we are able to offer schools and communities across California,” said John Fisher, Outreach Director at Life Lab and coordinator for the California School Garden Network. “We have focused a lot of time and energy on building a network of schools and garden support organizations in California. FoodCorps has allowed us to strengthen these networks and directly connect to other networks across the country,” Fisher added.
CAFF advocates for California family farmers and sustainable agriculture and has been running Farm to School programs since 2001. They serve as a co-state lead for the National Farm to School Network, co-coordinate the California Farm to School Network, and currently partners with 20 school districts to bring locally grown products into school cafeterias.
“FoodCorps in California builds upon the existing effort to bring together many of the stakeholders working on school gardens, nutrition education and procuring locally grown food for school meal programs,” said Diana Abellera, Regional Food Systems Director for CAFF. “We are excited to be able to provide trained service members to Farm to School programs throughout the state.”[1]
Ten organizations throughout California, including school districts, nonprofits and universities, are hosting a total of 12 service members. Life Lab, UC Cooperative Extension Central Sierra (San Andreas), Ventura Unified School District, Garden School Foundation (Los Angeles), Center for Nutrition and Activity Promotion (Chico), Sierra Harvest (Grass Valley), North Coast Opportunities (Ukiah), Oakland Unified School District, San Diego Unified School District, and CAFF are all hosting FoodCorps members for the 2013/2014 school year.
This past week, these 12 FoodCorps service members gathered in Santa Cruz at the Life Lab Garden Classroom to engage in a three day training to learn how to connect kids to real food and see first hand some of the best school garden and Farm to School models in action.
“The ability for us to get together as a group and learn from each other is essential for the success of the FoodCorps program,” said Kala Cuerington, the FoodCorps fellow in California who supports service members in the state and helped organize the training. “We are asking a lot of our service members, and we want to make sure they have the support and knowledge that they need to be successful.” she added.
Members spent day one of the training reflecting on their first month of service and getting to know each other. They also learned about different garden activities, the components of Farm to School programs and how to build support in the communities that they serve.
On the second day of the training the FoodCorps service members joined Life Lab’s Plant It, Grow It, Eat It workshop that focused on the principles of Garden-Enhanced Nutrition Education (GENE). Service members joined with 19 other school garden professionals and learned specific lessons to encourage good eating habits and healthy lifestyles by combining nutrition education with hands-on garden activities and opportunities to taste different foods.
“It was great to get hands-on experience and curriculum resources that I can apply directly into the garden lessons I am teaching at my service site,” said Chris Massa, FoodCorps service member in Ventura Unified School District. “I am really inspired and motivated to continue this work!” [2]
The training was topped off on the third and final day by attending the Santa Cruz Area School Food and Garden tour which visited some of the longest on-going garden programs in the state.
“The Santa Cruz area has been a hot bed for the school garden and Farm to School movement,” Fisher said. “Our community is very supportive of these programs and sees the incredible value they have added to the education and curriculum we are able to offer our students. We have been fortunate to have very motivated and talented garden coordinators, parents and community volunteers that have dedicated a tremendous amount of time and energy to the schools in our region.”
For the first stop of the day, FoodCorps members joined Jane Forbes, a veteran garden teacher at Westlake Elementary. They were able to observe both kindergarten and fourth grade lessons in action. Forbes explained how she has designed her curriculum to build upon itself each year so the students can use the concepts they are learning in the classroom and are able to apply them to real life in the garden.
“The garden has to be a place where you are supporting the classroom teachers in what they are doing,” Forbes said. “This creates teacher and administrative buy-in, which is necessary for the program to succeed.”
The next stop, Pacific Elementary School in Davenport, treated the FoodCorps members to a meal cooked from scratch with local food by students at the school. The Food Lab program, started in 1984 by Stephanie Raugust, has 5th and 6th grade students plan and prepare lunch for the school on a daily basis.
“There is an incredible amount of learning going on in the kitchen,” said Food Lab Coordinator Emilia Miguel. “They have to weigh, measure, increase amounts, read recipes, and that’s just the beginning!”
“It was amazing to see all of the students in the kitchen!” said Emily Koller, FoodCorps service member for the Center for Nutrition and Activity Promotion in Chico. “The meal was delicious. It is an incredible model that has proven this can be done and is sustainable over time.”[3]
“When kids plant their food, water it, watch it grow and then serve it, it truly connects them to their meal. The proof is in this kitchen – look how proud these little chefs are!” added Mary Tyranski, who is serving in San Diego Unified School District.
Outside, in Pacific Elementary’s Life Lab Garden established in 1983, students were busy at work designing and constructing tomato houses. “They are experimenting to see who can come up with the best way to grow a tomato plant in the winter,” said Ben Preston, the 5th and 6th grade teacher at Pacific Elementary. “I have always found that my students learn best by doing.”
The third stop highlighted DeLaveaga Elementary school, where the garden program began in 1979. Garden Coordinator Kim Gal, a former Life Lab intern, showed the group around the garden and led them in a lesson on plant parts.
The final destination on the tour brought the FoodCorps service members into the central kitchen of the Live Oak Unified School District. Here, enthusiastic Child Nutrition Services Director, Rachel Otis, inspired the group with her story of turning around a school district’s meal program from pre-packaged food warmed in plastic to a scratch cooking menu in less than a year. They also got to sample the rainbow rice dish that was served to the students that day.
“It can be done,” Otis encouraged the group. “You just need to have a deep passion for the work you are doing, great people around you, and a belief that you can make a difference.”
Back at the Life Lab Garden Classroom’s parking lot on the campus of UC Santa Cruz, FoodCorps service members shared words of wisdom and said their final good-byes before dispersing to their service sites scattered all across the state.
“These three days of training have been incredible,” said Sarah Ting, who is one of two service members serving in Oakland Unified School District. “I am so motivated to get back to my service site and continue the work of connecting students to their food and creating a healthy future for the kids in our area! I am looking forward to the next time we can all get together again.”[4]
“I know many of us (service members) can relate to the variety of obstacles communities face when it comes to improving the health of children. The lessons that we will take back to our service sites will be about how the people here overcame them. Inspirational stories!” Tyranski said.
“The last three days emphasized how widespread the struggle is to make health and nutrition education a priority for kids, but it also showed that change is possible. It is amazing what can happen when communities, including children, come together for the better of all,” she added.
“It was great to be able to connect with all of the service members that are participating in the FoodCorps California program,” said Abellera. “This inaugural group is incredibly motivated and talented. They have the potential to have a huge impact in the communities they are serving and to be leaders in school gardens, nutrition education, and the Farm to School movement for years to come.”
While just 12 service members are stationed in California for the 2013/2014 school year, FoodCorps Program Director Cecily Upton said she hopes to add more in years to come. "The need is there, and it is a large and diverse state, so we want to take that into account," she said. Upton noted that being connected to the national FoodCorps community will benefit food education in California. "It really starts to invigorate networks that already exist or helps create networks that didn't exist before," she said.
Since 1980, the percentage of American children who are overweight or obese has doubled. With one in four children struggling with hunger and one in three obese or overweight, FoodCorps addresses the root cause of both: access to healthy food. These efforts are paying off. The most recent data is showing that the obesity rates have dropped in many states for the first time in years.
FoodCorps has expanded it’s reach and grown it’s ranks every year since its inception in 2010. The first two FoodCorps classes brought important progress to the schools they served. Some service members made local beef and lentils staples in Montana cafeterias, others got Mississippi students excited to harvest bushels of kale. FoodCorps members have built or revitalized hundreds of school and community gardens and engaged thousands of students, volunteers and parents in their efforts across the country. It is looking to expand to at least one more state for the 2014/2015 school year.
For more information about the following groups, check out the links:
Life Lab: http://www.lifelab.org/ Contact: John Fisher gardendirector@lifelab.org
CAFF: http://caff.org/ Contact: Diana Abellera farmtoschool@caff.org
FoodCorps: https://foodcorps.org/ Media Contact: Jerusha Klemperer jerusha@foodcorps.org
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