The link between the health of our planet and of ourselves comes into focus when we consider our food system. School lunches, school gardens and even school composting play an important part in that system for children at Episcopal schools.
When parent Rob Gaon approached the Rev. Jesse Vaughan, headmaster at St. Michael's Episcopal Day School in Carmichael, California, in the fall of 2005 with his dream of a school garden, he wasn't sure what the response would be. Gaon had started gardening when he moved to the Sacramento area a few years earlier and had fallen in love with the practice.
In the spring of 2006, Vaughan walked Gaon out to the space where he thought the garden should be, and the dream began to be realized.
"The amazing thing is how the whole school community has embraced the garden," says Gaon.
That summer, a group of parents put the garden together.
Now there is a garden parent for each classroom, and grandparents' club members support the garden with their labor and fund raisers.
"The teachers have received it with open arms," says Gaon. The lower grades have been most active, but even the seventh- and eighth-grade classes are involved, planting a Shakespeare garden to complement their English studies.
The children are excited to pick and eat snap peas or strawberries, and the harvest is included on the school cafeteria salad bar and vegetarian soups. "We have an amazing woman in our cafeteria," says Gaon. Signs are posted identifying produce from the school garden when it is a featured part of any menu.
The Mediterranean climate allows harvesting of something in any month, a cycle gardeners are still learning in their second year. "And we can do lettuce year 'round," adds Gaon.
A worm-composting bin on the garden site completes the cycle of healthy lunches at St. Michael's.
Other food ventures
Besides the rooftop garden at St. Philip's Academy in Newark, New Jersey, the school's cafeteria functions as a nutrition center with an open kitchen. Cooking classes were piloted in last year's summer program, and the goal is eventually to get the students cooking for themselves. A nutrition letter goes out twice a month to students' families, promoting healthy eating beyond school lunch.
At St. Paul's Episcopal School in New Orleans, two fifthgraders and their religion teacher met with Head of School Merry Sorrells about how much they saw being thrown away in the neighborhood. They started lunchtime meetings as the Green Team, researched composting and presented their plan to the St. Paul's Church vestry, which agreed to an open compost system.
Students have had their first harvest of red leaf lettuce and broccoli from the community garden down the street, but the school is still contracting with the Lakeview Deli for lunches, as it is not yet back to a full-service kitchen after the damage wreaked by Hurricane Katrina. An edible schoolyard approach, though, may be in its future.
At Campbell Hall in North Hollywood, California, No Waste Wednesdays have become routine, with reusable containers and refillable water bottles the norm. One mother purchased cloth wrappers for packing her children's sandwiches. Her sixth-grade daughter's friends noticed and wanted them, and within a few weeks the Sustainability Committee was selling the reusable wrappers on campus.
"My daughter tells me that now almost all the kids in elementary use them, a huge change in a relatively short time," the mother said.
Oregon Episcopal School contracts with a major foodservice company. But they are pleased that the contractor belongs to a food alliance, gets much of the food locally or regionally and offers daily vegetarian options, says Jon von Behren, director of facilities management. The school's food waste goes to a local organic farm for composting.
Printer Friendly
Email to Friend
