Web Sites: EdibleSchoolyard.org

Why I am recommending EdibleSchoolyard.org:

Living a great life requires eating great food. Great food is fresh food. The Edible Schoolyard is a brilliant project that teaches kids, not only how to eat well, but also helps to nuture in them a sense of themselves in relationship to nature; where their food comes from. It is a program that encourages kids to take responsibility for the well being of both themselves and the earth that we all share.

Click here to visit the EdibleSchoolyard.org

From the website:

The Edible Schoolyard is a non-profit program located on the campus of Martin Luther King Junior Middle School in Berkeley, California. The cooking and gardening program grew out of a conversation between chef and author Alice Waters, and former King Middle School Principal Neil Smith. Planning commenced in 1995 and two years later, more than an acre of asphalt parking lot had been cleared. A cover crop was planted to enrich the soil, and in 1997, the school's unused 1930s cafeteria kitchen was refurbished to house the kitchen classroom.

Today, the program is integrated into the middle school's daily life. The organic garden is flourishing, plants feed and outgrow the adolescents who nurtured them, and the kitchen is filled with delicious smells, music, and enthusiastic young chefs.

Garden classes teach the Principles of Ecology, the origins of food, and respect for all living systems. Students work together to shape and plant beds, amend soil, turn compost, and harvest flowers, fruits, and vegetables.

In the kitchen classroom, students prepare and eat delicious seasonal dishes from produce they have grown in the garden. Students and teachers gather at the table to share food and conversation during each class. The cycle of food production is completed in the kitchen, as students eat fruits, vegetables, and grains grown in soil rich with the compost of last season's produce.

Click here to visit EdibleSchoolyard.org