Relevance/Rationale:
The reason for this project is multi-faceted. We are interested in building community, spreading awareness about organic agriculture and healthy eating, and the value of working as a team (in the dirt) to produce a life-sustaining product: our own food. We believe in the power of collective labor, as well as sharing organic food, to build community. Our current lunch program poses several issues: processed and packaged food, trash, and segregation between staff and students. We believe that gathering as a community to produce an edible schoolyard will bring us together both in the labor and sharing phases. Students will surely recognize the relevance of this project to their own lives in that they of course must eat, and they will find that ownership of their own sustenance and management of the garden space, from beginning to completion, is their responsibility. They will design the space, decorate and market the garden, and ensure its longevity. Through careful examination of agriculture practices, both the detriments of processed food and health benefits of organic food, and the socio-demographic relationship between food shortage, overpopulation, and distribution, students will learn how this project is going to become the future of food production: one that is community-based.
The reason for this project is multi-faceted. We are interested in building community, spreading awareness about organic agriculture and healthy eating, and the value of working as a team (in the dirt) to produce a life-sustaining product: our own food. We believe in the power of collective labor, as well as sharing organic food, to build community. Our current lunch program poses several issues: processed and packaged food, trash, and segregation between staff and students. We believe that gathering as a community to produce an edible schoolyard will bring us together both in the labor and sharing phases. Students will surely recognize the relevance of this project to their own lives in that they of course must eat, and they will find that ownership of their own sustenance and management of the garden space, from beginning to completion, is their responsibility. They will design the space, decorate and market the garden, and ensure its longevity. Through careful examination of agriculture practices, both the detriments of processed food and health benefits of organic food, and the socio-demographic relationship between food shortage, overpopulation, and distribution, students will learn how this project is going to become the future of food production: one that is community-based.