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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
It wasn't a textbook that the Samuel L. Green Charter School second graders were eager to dive into on a recent Wednesday morning.
"We're not putting our hands in the dirt yet, OK?" garden science teacher Aaron Ciuffo cautioned his charges, who stood with wide eyes and ready fingers around a black bin filled with organic soil. "We are going to put sand in here to help get some of the water out."
Quick quiz. Would you like to sit in a classroom and study a chart about the life cycle of a plant? Or would you rather dig in the dirt, plant a seed, water it, watch the seedling break through the soil, smell its bright yellow flower, and eventually bite into a juicy slice of fresh watermelon?
For children raised in inner city New Orleans, access to healthy produce is hard to come by, and growing food to eat is an abstract concept at best. But the students at Samuel J. Green Charter School are getting a hands-on lesson in organic gardening through the school’s Edible Schoolyard program.