School's Out for Summer!

Summertime might call to mind images of sleepy school hallways and bustling front porches, but our service members are still hard at work connecting kids to real, healthy food in Arkansas. People often ask us, “What happens to school gardens when the students are gone?” This summer we plan to use this blog to answer that question, starting now.

Ally with Fayetteville Public Schools looks forward to partnering with Owl Creek School and the neighboring Boys and Girls Club to help kids get their hands dirty in Owl Creek’s garden on a weekly basis! She also seeks to engage new, local producers in Fayetteville’s local procurement program, and plans to spend some time in school kitchens alongside the district’s fabulous food service workers. In another innovative example of partnership, Ally is developing a produce freezing pilot project with the University of Arkansas’s Food Science Department. We are excited to watch the progress of this effort to make the healthy goodness of summertime harvests available to Fayetteville students year round.

Taking stock of the year thus far, Sara in Yellville says that her school has harvested over 900 pounds of produce from their garden since September 28, 2012! She is excited to leverage her garden’s productivity into educational Garden-to-Table camps where kids will learn about both gardening and cooking. At the end of each of camp, Sara wants her students to feel comfortable in the kitchen, and not afraid to experiment with healthy recipes. Not to forget about her garden’s adult supporters, Sara says community members can also stop by weekly garden workdays to volunteer and take home fresh produce.

At Cloverdale Aerospace Technology Conversion Charter Middle in Little Rock, Jade plans to engage her most enthusiastic student supporters to volunteer in the garden as part of a rotating schedule of workdays. Jade also plans to focus on outreach, engaging local churches and community groups in the garden’s summertime rhythm. She is also excited to spend some time this summer making garden signs and decorations to make it even more of an inviting space for the upcoming school year.

Starting next week, Sophia will host three, week-long sessions of gardening and cooking camp at Holt Middle School in Fayetteville! Each week her students will have a chance to learn about a different theme: gardening and cooking basics, animals on the farm, and food from different cultures. Her campers will cook and enjoy lunch made with garden produce every day and take home a collection of recipes at the end of the week!

Here's to a summer of service. And salads. And frittatas. And goats. We'll keep you posted. 

 - by Rachel Spencer

A Thanks To the People Behind Every School Garden

In 2011 I graduated college, found a place with FoodCorps, and moved to a small
town in the Ozark mountains called Marshall, Arkansas. As a service members I
moved to a new community, bringing with me a passion for healthy eating and a
sizable helping of ideas for my new classes. My school garden turned out to be
the best office any recent college grad could aspire to have, mainly because of the
people that I came to know in my community. After all, passion and ideas make for
poor companions without finding the people that can share them. Consider this blog
post my FoodCorps Thanksgiving table.

Summer potato harvest at the Marshall School Garden. 

Thanks to the teachers: the ones that took me under their wing, making sure I had what I needed to be successful in service. The ones that patiently answered my endless questions about educational standards and lesson plans. The teachers that might not have known it at the time, but they showed me how to work with kids, and are shining examples of what it means to care. Thanks to the teachers that took a chance in bringing their classes to a place without four walls, and saw just how much kids can learn from the garden. 

Thanks to the administrators, staff, and community volunteers: the principal that
tasted pesto for the first time to show the kids a good example, the superintendent
that connected us with the resources we needed, but still had time to have a conversation. To the maintenance staff that forgave us for the stubborn dirt
clinging to our student’s shoes as they walked back inside from the garden. To the
secretaries that quietly run the whole show. To the community members that give so much of themselves without a thought of receiving gratitude in return.

Arkansas service members gathered to
celebrate MLK Day last year.

To family and friends: the ones that thought I was crazy to embark on this journey, but supported me anyway. To my fellow service members, you taught me so much about work, food, and life. To the friends that introduced me to the wonders of my new home, and helped me smile when our corner of the world seemed bleak. To the gardeners that showed me what it means to help plants and children grow.

To FoodCorps and all our supporters, unseen and otherwise: To the staff that makes it possible for us to wake up every day with purpose, to support ourselves and pursue a year of service. To all the kindred spirits that believe that kids deserve to grow up having an enduring relationship with healthy food, and are working to make that a reality in their communities.

Packaging greens for a food bank
alongside community volunteers. 

And, not to be forgotten, thank you to the skeptics. Every wrinkled nose, scowl, and cold stare I encountered last year taught me the importance of resilience. Most of all, thank you to the kids that made persevering through the challenges into an easy decision. Thanks to the students that gave me and the garden a chance. Thanks to the kids that chose to bravely go with me where no middle schooler had gone before, to a world of swiss chard, raw broccoli, and zucchini fritters.

As a FoodCorps fellow I am incredibly grateful to have the opportunity to support this year’s cohort of Arkansas service members as they form their own connections with people in their new communities. I know first hand how important those connections can be. 

To all the people that I never knew I would meet, but whom I cannot imagine my life without, thank you and happy Thanksgiving!

by Rachel Spencer

This article was also featured on the Annie's Blog. To learn more about the partnership between FoodCorps and Annie's, visit their website.