Did You Know Community Gardens
Could Save ‘Failing’ Brooklyn Public Schools?
To increase access to healthy, local foods, I move to develop
the Brooklyn Sustainable Agriculture Program (BASP) in “failing” Title 1 public
schools in Brooklyn NYC. This green education through community gardens will
improve nutrition, fodder leadership development and life skills, and encourage
wellness for a more sustainable future for our students and children.
Who Are We
Talking About?
20 Schools In Kings County, N.Y. (Brooklyn) who are “failing.”
Peace
Academy, “fourth consecutive year failing since 2005-2006”, 89% free and reduced
price lunch, 99.4% minorities
Automotive
High School 10 years failing.95% free
and reduce lunch, 99.4% minorities
What
Is Failing?
I introduce to you, my small international audience, Andrew Cuomo, Gov. of N.Y. He believes that
when schools have persistently low-test scores, they should lose democratic
control. So basically, it’s low-test scores. But who’s to blame? What can we do
to change this endemic system?
DO YOU GET THE
PICTURE?
The list of schools goes on and on with eighteen other
schools- some have been failing for 15 years. Something has to be done…
Let's Try An Example...
This is W.E. Dubois High School on 402 Eastern Parkway. It
samples self-paced academics, however features no internship program. The daily
attendance is 63%. Only 36% are enrolled in college after high school, and 0%
of special needs students are enrolled in college after graduation.
This is Eastern Parkway
coalition garden 1029 Union Street in Brooklyn. The transport police took plot
over for a parking lots, however with assistance from the GreenThumb program,
GrowNYC gardeners raised money and cleaned the plot.
LET’S HEAR THE CRAZY
IDEA
· 1. Reach out and make connections between Title 1
Brooklyn Schools to nearby existing Brooklyn community gardens advertised on GrowNYC
webpage,http://www.grownyc.org/openspace/gardens/bk
· 2. Implement
a weekly extracurricular program to visit and cultivate a community garden. In this example, I would connect W.E. Dubois High School with Eastern Coalition
Garden.
· 3. Cultivating a consistent relationship between garden and
school weekly addresses two problems with current expeditionary learning
a. Visits just are not frequent enough for project-based
learning and retention of material
b. ACCESS Field trips cost money that most students, as
show in the statistics above, do not have.
HOW WILL WE DO IT
·We will apply for Grow to Learn mini grant
supported by the NYC Department of Education Sustainability Office
Grants range from 500 to 3,000 dollars. This can
cover possible transportation cost, books, and teacher development
To prep for this program, I would advise teachers
to utilize New York Agriculture Into Classroom http://www.agclassroom.org/ny that contextualizes science, social studies, and nutrition education linked to
Common Core standards.
. Having one common project would bring school and
community together would contextualize the work they currently do, and improve
nutrition, emphasize leadership skills, and encourage wellness.
WHY URBAN
AGRICULTURE WORKS
Improve Nutrition: Gardeners
consumed fruits and veggies “5.7 times per day.” Encourages Life
Skills/Leadership Development: 5 percent of the U.S. workforce is employed in
agriculture-related careers” according to the
American Farm Bureau Federation, Over 50,000 jobs for college graduates in the agricultural, food
and renewable natural resources sectors created annually from
2010-2015, according to the
U.S. Department of Agriculture. Emphasize Wellness: At local level, community gardens praised for therapeutic qualities, In a study, 30 gardeners performed stressful tasks than worked
in a garden. The result? Solitary cortisol level decreased (stressed decreased)
·
Don’t you want “civic spaces that grow food, provide valuable open space, and
serve as dynamic classrooms for NYC school children?” (Grow NYC)
Let’s all
join the conversation about urban gardening in the Greater New York City Area!
Tweet me @thinkzoeboost or insta me at @thinkzoeboost so we can talk more about
this really relevant issue!
