Garden To Plate, The Teen's Guide To Eating Your Vegetables!

I teach Culinary Arts and Food Nutrition to 150 California high school students. Students learn about foods and cooking techniques from around the world, the fundamentals of nutrition, food service career opportunities, team work and leadership skills. Students that earn an A or B, receive college credit. This project will be a part of a unit on sustainable agriculture and healthy dining. The unit will include an organic vegetable/herb garden, a library of cookbooks and resource books on gardening and vegetarian cuisine, cooking labs using organic produce, and a gallery of photos taken by students of the dishes they have created. In my classroom the minority is the majority. In a class of 35 students you will see an average of 5 White/Caucasian students. The remaining are Asian, Philippine, African American and Hispanic. 20% of my students are Special Education, & over 40% are on the free/reduced lunch program

Our greatest obstacle is the lack of financial resources. The schools in California have been hit hard by budget cuts. In each of the six years teaching at this school, our site has been mandated to cut at least $200k from our budget. One year we had to cut over $600k. Classes like mine, that teach students real-world skills, end up suffering. This year I am starting with no instructional supply budget for my three Food Nutrition classes. My program still continues to grow. Students are showing a greater interest in subjects like nutrition and dietetics, conscious consumerism and culinary arts. My classes are pathways to pursuing a college degree and career in these increasingly popular industries. Without the resources to purchase supplies, it is difficult to create the hands-on projects, like this one, that make the subject matter accessible to all students (including English language learners and various levels of Special Ed.).

To start the project my students need seeds for the garden, books for the class library, large frames for our student work gallery, cutting boards with storage rack, informational posters for product identification, an instructional DVD and a sprout growing window to enrich student knowledge of how seeds grow. Everyone knows that childhood obesity and type2 diabetes are major problems in our country. Giving our students first-hand knowledge of how food gets from the garden to the plate, teaching them preparation techniques that preserve nutrients and boost flavor, and inspiring their creativity with fun cooking projects that they can share with others are all keys to battling the nutrition based health problems we are facing. The focus of this project is to teach students how to eat seasonal, unprocessed and locally grown foods that are good for them, and the environment. Students walk away from this experience understanding the connection between the choices they make and the health of our bodies and our planet. Students are also exposed to the industry of organic food production, as they prepare for applying to college and choosing a career.

Your donation and support with this project will truly make a difference in the lives of this year's 150 students, as well as future students in the years to come. The knowledge and experience each student gains will lay the foundation for making healthier choices, having fun with food, respecting our natural resources, being able to pass the knowledge from the classroom to their homes and inspiring students to care about what they put in their mouths. Projects like this stick with students for the rest of their lives and pave the way for a healthier and more caring generation of earthlings.