As the summer comes to an end, students and their parents aren’t the only ones gearing up for the 2011-12 school year.

In the Oakland Unified School District, teachers, administrators, principals and other school employees are working together to implement more garden education programs. 

According to the OUSD, the goal is for every school in Oakland to establish and maintain a garden. With school gardens, children are provided access to healthy and locally produced food, an understanding of food systems and the natural cycle and a connection to local community.

Oakland Local looked at two Oakland schools that are leading the way in ensuring that children continue to strive and learn the importance of nutrition education.   

New Highland Academy
Public elementary school (K-5)
8521 A St. in East Oakland

New Highland Academy is a public elementary school, which serves 340 students from kindergarten through fifth grade in the diverse Elmhurst neighborhood of East Oakland. Sixty five percent of students at the school are Latino, 35 percent are African American, 60 percent of students are classified as English learners and 90 percent qualify for free or reduced lunch.  

Last year, NHA was one of 13 Oakland schools that integrated the Greens Collaborative Program. The program began as an informal collaborative of 13 schools that have gardens, recreation, environmental education and nutrition and science program grants through the Oakland Schools Foundation.

“I’m thrilled that something is being done by the district,” Liz Ozol, the principal of New Highland Academy, said. “By participating in this collaborative, we received a small grant. Thanks to this grant, we can maintain our garden.”

Ozol, who worked with a garden designer, a parent and student group, a landscaper and teachers during the formation and maintenance of the school’s garden, said she hopes that the organic garden becomes a more integral part of lesson planning in the future despite the challenges the garden education program currently faces.

“The challenge is not having money to have a garden coordinator,” she said. “Another challenge is that in East Oakland, there aren’t that many places where children have access to healthy foods. We need to start getting kids to eat healthy early. We need to do better in neighborhoods like this.”

Although New Highland Academy does not have a permanent garden coordinator, plenty of people have stepped up and been involved in beautifying and tightening the garden. Tracy Dordell, a third grade teacher at New Highland, runs the after-school garden club and essentially helped create the garden, six years ago.

“With this garden, teachers have the opportunity to take students outside,” Dordell said. “Our garden is so awesome! In East Oakland, children do not have that many places where they can go to see plants, pollination and the life cycle. My students love going outside and playing with dirt. They are so peaceful when they are out there.”

Dordell said the garden is the only place on campus where kids can pick flowers, take fruits and vegetables home for free and learn about foods that they didn’t know existed before.

“It’s my favorite place to take my students,” she said. “A lot of Oakland Unified Schools are having gardens, but ours is really special. It serves as a great tool for vocabulary lessons. Many Spanish-speaking and English-speaking students learn how to say the names of fruits, vegetables and plants in both languages.”  

Another person who takes charge in the upkeep of the garden at New Highland Academy is Todd Gilens - a parttime consultant for the past two years. He orders soil for the garden, works with the community in getting more people involved in the maintenance of the garden and even designs and paints murals at the school with the help from teachers and students.

“The garden needs weekly attention,” Gilens said. “The two critical places I want to work on is connecting standardized curriculum to gardening projects and finding a way for myself or someone to maintain maintenance in the garden.”

Gilens said that during his two years, he’s seen first hand the impact the garden has had on students and people in the community.

“It’s a resource in so many ways,” he said. “One of the school’s counselors brings the children to the garden when doing lectures and it relaxes them. The experience for kids to see food growing, to use the food in the garden and to connect to a healthy cycle of where food comes from, is huge.”

The future for garden education programs at New Highland Academy looks bright. According to Ozol, there are plans this year for the school to have anywhere from two to three family workdays – days where parents and their children, as well as people in the community, are asked to come out to work on the garden. 

NHA also is participating in the Oakland Eats Garden Fresh program. The program, a venture of the OUSD Nutrition Services, Alameda County Public Health Department and the East Bay Asian Youth Center, connects what’s being learned at school gardens to what is being served at cafeterias and sold at produce markets.

According to Jennifer LeBarre, the director of OUSD Nutrition Services, the goal of the program is to expand the network of 12 school produce markets where parents and students sell fresh locally grown fruits and vegetables during after-school hours once a week at each school site to other parents, students, staff members and community residents. Ideally, she would like for there to be 25 markets.    

“This program has some ties to the Greens Collaborative Program, but it is definitely different,” LeBarre said. “We provide nutrition education at 37 schools and want to do so for every school in Oakland.” 

LeBarre said that while she is still waiting for the numbers to come in, she estimates that approximately $120,000 of local fresh fruit and other produce were sold through the markets last year.  

“It’s made a huge difference to families and to the city of Oakland because more people are encouraged and want to eat more fruits and vegetables at schools,” she said. “We are going to do more labeling of locally grown harvested products, taste tests and Harvest of the Month at schools in the upcoming years.”  

The Oakland Eats Garden Fresh program kicked off last spring as a part of Earth Day and New Highland Academy qualified for the program because more than 70 percent of its student population receives free/reduced school meals and because it is located in a neighborhood that is surrounded by liquor stores. 

Oakland Garden School
Private preschool
4012 Maybelle Ave. in Oakland

The Oakland Garden School is a relatively new private preschool. Now in its fourth year, the school specializes in nature and environmental child education. The OGS accepts children 2-5 years old and currently has about 35 kids enrolled.

“Our concept is to provide children with a magical childhood,” Tae Ha, the founder and director of the Oakland Garden School, said. “We are a nature-based school and emphasize the importance of nature. It is very important for children to be exposed to everything about nature. We are unique and unlike any other preschool.”

Ha said not only does the OGS have an organic garden filled with all kinds of trees, fruits and vegetables, but it also has a farm with animals. Children have the opportunity to learn about, as well as take care of, chickens, goats and pigs. In fact, Ha compares the setting at the Oakland Garden School to the petting section for children at the Oakland Zoo.

“Everything is integrated in life,” she said. “Play is our vehicle and nature is our key. We offer that experience. We are planting a seed in children’s minds. Work is play and play is work. Down the road, we want them to become gardeners and environmentalists.”

Although children at the Oakland Garden School can’t do heavy farming, they are involved in daily programs and projects. According to Ha, kids feed chickens, collect eggs, pick apples, water plants and harvest food.

“They love to see what is growing,” she said. “We have about 20 apple trees and tons of organic fruits and vegetables. We grow chestnuts, pears, plums, apricots, strawberries and zucchinis, just to name a few.”

In the future, Ha said she wants the OGS to be a place where other instructors can come in to learn about nature and the nurturing aspect of childhood education. She said that because parents pay for their child’s tuition, the school is not affected by California's budget cuts.

“We want this to be a learning place for teachers,” Ha said. “That’s the goal for the next few years.”