A food revolution in Berkeley: fighting malnutrition and disease, teaching ecological literacy, and giving hope to family farmers begins with kids growing their own food - Center for Ecoliteracy Food Systems Project

Whole Earth, Spring, 2002 by Michael K. Stone

CEL hopes that BUSD will assume increasing responsibility for food systems work. Meanwhile, it is looking to migrate its food systems work to nearby counties, beginning with Sonoma, Marin, and Yolo. It wants to test a model based not on subsidies, but on community support and establishing connections between local farms and schools. "It was never our intention," says Zenobia, "just to build a program for poor kids."

The program has experienced difficulty in meeting some of its goals. For instance, the objective of school and community gardens' providing 25 percent of the fresh produce required by Berkeley schools seems to be widely acknowledged as unrealistic.

Increasing participation in breakfast programs, another goal, has also been difficult, as it has been everywhere else in the country. With two schools often sharing the same buses, some students would not arrive in time to eat before class. Teachers resisted beginning classes later, and thus extending the school day, for the sale of accommodating breakfasts.

DOES THE PROGRAM MAKE DIFFERENCE FOR CHILDREN?

Preliminary data from a study by Michael Murphy of Massachusetts General Hospital and the Harvard Medical School suggests that Berkeley students in integrated programs are learning more about food, systems, and ecology.

Many people, including food service personnel, believe that efforts to improve nutrition are doomed because students are already acculturated, if not addicted, to high-sugar, high-fat, highly processed foods. To test this, students eating breakfast at one Berkeley school were offered a choice between their traditional breakfast (for example, pancakes and syrup) and a bowl of whole grain oatmeal with fruit. "It was one of the most amazing school breakfast things I've ever seen," says Murphy. "I have pictures of eighty kids a day eating oatmeal. Kids will substitute more natural and more nutritious foods if you put the good food out and present it well."

HOW IS THE PROGRAM A MODEL? HOW WELL CAN IT "MIGRATE"?

CEL staff feel that many lessons they have learned can be put to good use by others (see LESSONS LEARNED).

LESSONS LEARNED

Some suggestions for beginning a food systems program:

* Give yourself three years. The gardening metaphor is "double
digging," spending the first 18 months turning over the soil
before planting.

* Involve as much of your whole community as possible from the start.
Think about the Four Societies: Who are the people in the community
who represent each of those societies? Does the planning process
acknowledge, honor, and include all of them? Pull in those who aren't
normally seen, such as food service staff and custodians.

* Anticipate criticism and griping. It's part of the process, not a
diversion that must be avoided in order to get on with the process.

* When necessary, work incrementally, taking steps that don't seem like
radical departures from the familiar.

* Point to strong examples that say, "It's already been done. We can
do it here too."

* Begin with gardens. They work. They break down assumptions about
"learning." They offer tangible signs to the community that something
is happening. Being with nature, observing the path from seed to table
(or, better, the cycle from soil to soil) is the beginning of
ecological literacy.

* Free someone (it could be a volunteer) from other responsibilities to
oversee garden, scheduling, maintenance, etc. It's too much work to
expect a teacher to do on top of a full-time teaching load. Think about
who will maintain the garden during breaks when teachers and students
are gone.

* Plan to scale up. The scale of change for affecting systems is
ultimately the district, not the classroom or even the school.

* Institute a food policy, with a council or committee charged with
overseeing it.

* Make use of visible people in the community (an Alice Waters or a Tom
Bates) who can give the project visibility and credibility.

* Look to local and regional funders for financial support and
connection across a spectrum of agencies. SoLving for pattern
creates a pattern that people didn't perceive before. There aren't
funders who leap off the page of foundation directories indicating an
interest in this work; one must put together a patchwork of funders.
FSP funding has come from foundations devoted to education,
environment, health, sustainable agriculture, economic
development, and community-based philanthropy.

* Look to collaborate with as wide a spectrum of people and
organizations as possible, but don't assume that they'll give
up their own deep agendas.

* Think about a role for third parties (such as the Food Systems
Project) who aren't already immersed in maintaining the current system.