Edible Schoolyard | New Orleans
Welcome to the Edible Schoolyard New Orleans
Changing the way kids eat, learn, and live
Created in 2006, the Edible Schoolyard New Orleans (ESY NOLA) integrates organic gardening and seasonal cooking into the curricula, culture, and food programs at two public charter schools; Samuel J. Green and Arthur Ashe. ESY NOLA is based on the original Edible Schoolyard founded in Berkeley, California by chef and food education activist Alice Waters. ESY NOLA provides students with engaging hands-on learning experiences through weekly gardening and cooking classes and school-based seasonal events that promote the food traditions of New Orleans. Students in grades K-8 participate in lessons that reinforce classroom coursework and core subjects (science, social studies, language, and math). At the Edible Schoolyard, the garden and kitchen are interactive venues where textbook lessons come to life. Through these experiences, students become stewards or our land and natural resources, and discover that teamwork yields genuine benefits in the garden, kitchen, and in life.
Community News
Erinisha Williams and Tyreion Dixon were curious about the man and woman who brought the truck full of watermelons to their school. They asked the man: Where do you live? Is that your daughter? Will the watermelons dies in the winter?
Today, there are only about one-third as many students attending the New Orleans public school system as there were before Hurricane Katrina. The system is recovering from the storm, and from a state takeover to address years of failing test scores. As a result, it has been completely remade, and is now being run by a patchwork of charter school organizers, and state and local administrators.


