2010 TEDPrize Winner: Jamie Oliver
Don’t miss this inspiring talk by Chef Jamie Oliver. He has become a highly vocal and active advocate for children’s right to eat fresh, nutritious food both at school and in the home. His goal is to educate American schools and parents on how to serve healthy, easy to prepare foods on a budget. One of the unique positions he takes is on the importance of parents cooking for their children, then sitting down to eat with them. Without this food “infrastructure”, we are becoming a nation of people who don’t know how or what to eat, and who don’t know and understand the fulfillment of a family meal. Jamie’s winning wish:
“I wish for your help to create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity.”
School Adds Weeding to Reading and Writing
As with all educational topics, school gardens have been the subject of hot debate lately. This article by Kim Severson in the New York Times Dining section, outlines the debate and details the plans for the latest Edible Schoolyard backed by California’s Alice Waters. For those who don’t know, Alice Waters has been a huge champion of the idea that fresh, good food is a right, not a privilege. In many circles she is credited with the increased availability of organic foods in our local markets. The school garden at P.S. 216 in Brooklyn will be the sixth backed by Waters’ Chez Panisse Foundation.
“Teachers will use the garden to give students — 460 children from prekindergarten to the fifth grade — lessons in subjects like art, math, history and science. Administrators hope the school will eventually become a center for the study of the environment and agriculture.”
If You Give a Kid a Shovel
In this joyful article, Joe Gillespie highlights some of the benefits of having a school garden. At Valley Charter School it is our goal to establish an edible schoolyard – an organic vegetable garden – that students will, in large part, create, plant, harvest, and maintain. One of the benefits of having an edible schoolyard is that, once up and running, it becomes a vehicle for teaching math and science concepts as well as the fundamentals of nutrition education. One of the surprise benefits: gardening requires patience. See our previous post “Can the Right Kinds of Play Teach Self-Control?” to get a sense of how important this is.
“Every day is a little different and always very hands-on. I have found something very interesting about teaching gardening over the years. There is usually no immediate gratification, which is what students are used to and what they desire. Other than seeing a radish seed pop out of the soil fairly quickly, most plants take two to three months to grow to a harvestable size. And there is all of the weeding and watering to do. Yet the reward is often so great, that if you can just get them that far, the concepts they learn are deeply ingrained in their being.”
School Meals: Building Blocks for Healthy Children
The Institute of Medicine has released new recommendations for healthier school lunches. “Kids will eat their veggies, given half a chance, Neighmond reported last year. After some Los Angeles schools took the radical step of putting salad bars in the cafeteria, lo and behold, children increased their fruit and vegetable consumption by one full serving a day.” Valley Charter School is all for nutrition education and improvements in the school lunch program. It is our goal to develop an edible schoolyard – an organic school community garden – as another way to encourage kids to eat fresh fruit and vegetables. By participating in planting, growing, harvesting, and even preparing fresh foods, kids are also more likely to give these foods a chance in their own diet.
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