In recognition of National Nutrition Month, students at Sylmar Charter High School welcomed LA Unified Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho and other guests for tours of their expansive agriculture center, with an array of vegetable gardens, an orchard of fruit trees and even a chicken coop offering farm-fresh eggs.
Carvalho said he was in awe of Sylmar Charter’s agriculture program, noting that it was the largest he had ever seen at a school. He said Sylmar Charter’s regular donations of surplus fruits and vegetables help support LAUSD’s Farm to School initiative, which aims to “provide fresh produce to students – within 24 to 48 hours of harvesting – to support child nutrition, increase student achievement and help improve the quality of life for our school communities.”
“It is very touching for someone like me, who grew up … always facing food insecurity,” said Carvalho who pointed out the majority of LAUSD students are growing up facing similar challenges, with an estimated 80% currently living in poverty.
Representatives of organizations and programs that help support LAUSD’s Farm to School initiative – including the Alice Waters Institute, Shared Plate Strategies, Community Alliance of Family Farmers, the Center for Good Food Purchasing, No Kid Hungry, Urban School Food Alliance and the statewide Farm to Fork program – also attended and saw the school’s impressive grounds and its program put in practice first hand.
They were served healthy plates of vegetable soufflé and other foods made with ingredients grown on the land where they stood. The agricultural grounds of the Sylmar campus are a far cry from the urban blacktop that is typically seen at most schools.
“We look like a production nursery – it’s pretty cool,” said Steve List, an agriculture teacher at Sylmar Charter since 2007.
“We grow so much that we always have a lot to donate to other schools.”
List said teaching students how to grow their own fruit and vegetables has promoted healthy eating and introduced them to job opportunities in the agricultural industry – “which is huge, especially in California.”
Sylmar Charter’s agriculture program offers courses in basic and advanced floriculture, horticulture and greenhouse practices. Students learn to grow and harvest a variety of produce, such as spinach, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, beans, carrots and dragonfruit. List said that some of what they grow is used for the school’s own cafeteria and culinary arts program, but the bulk ends up being donated.
Students Embrace Farming
Jazbeth Torres, a senior at Sylmar Charter, said the agriculture program has been an unexpected boon. She said she was never interested in plants, gardening or farming before taking her first class in 11th grade – which she admits she did so very reluctantly – but quickly grew to love it.
“It’s been really great – I never expected that,” explained Torres. “The classes are so fun and hands-on and interactive, and I get to interact with other people – without being on my phone.”
Torres said she even gardens in her free time at home, where she has grown cilantro, strawberries and a variety of flowers.
“It always gives me a sense of satisfaction to see the flowers blooming,” she said. “It makes me happy to know I can actually make things grow.”
For Diego Martinez, who is also a senior, the experience began quite differently. He recalled accompanying his older sister to the grounds of the agriculture center at Sylmar Charter when she was a student there when he was just seven years old – and he’s been fascinated ever since.
“When I met Mr. List, he showed me around and he showed me everything that they do – helping people in the community, working to support nearby soup kitchens, helping elementary schools with their own gardens and teaching other students to be sustainable,” recounted Martinez. “It just spoke to me and it was something that I had really wanted to do ever since.”
Since joining the agriculture program, Martinez said it has become “really important to me.”
“It’s been a lot of my life actually,” he continued. “I just love it here … [and] I love that all the hard work we do is being recognized,” Martinez said.
“[Our students] are not guaranteed a meal every single day; they depend on the nutrition they get in our schools,” said Carvalho. “These programs [and partnerships] that make the concept of Farm to School a reality – so that our students are able to eat fresh produce, eat fresh fruits grown locally right here in our community, in our state – for me is a dream come true.”