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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
Chef and author Alice Waters helped found the first Edible Schoolyard (ESY) in Berkley, California in 1995. Since then, a handful of edible schoolyard concepts have popped up around the country, including in New Orleans. And now Detroit Edison, a public high school in Detroit, wants in on the action. Producer Mercedes Mejia visited the Edible Schoolyard in New Orleans to see how students learn about growing their own food and the health of their community.
Hear the story on Michigan Radio.
On a recent picture perfect spring evening, a well-heeled crowd mixed and mingled under the stars as they dined on some of New Orleans' finest cuisine.
The Uptown setting for this soiree was Samuel J. Green Charter School, and the night's most special guest was none other than Alice Waters, the culinary visionary and founder of the Edible Schoolyard.
Because of Waters' belief that the best food is obtained locally and prepared simply, in 1996 she created the original Edible Schoolyard at a Berkeley middle school, combining a one-acre garden with kitchen instruction and sharing of student-prepared meals served in the school cafeteria. She is the author of eight books and is the vice president of Slow Food International.