Oxalis Challenge at Ida B.

I recently learned from my students that oxalis, an invasive and aggressive weed for many San Francisco gardeners, is also called sourgrass, whose flower stalk can actually be chewed. Although oxalis has another beneficial function, that is, to prevent soil erosion on slopes, I can't help but feel that every time I'm up at one of my schools, it's a renewed battle between oxalis and gardener.

Last week, I issued a challenge to my students at Ida B. Wells to pull out as much oxalis as they could from our two main beds, which would be documented as before and after pictures on this blog. Although some students went right to work, others required much more coaxing; many students seem to have an inherent dislike of weeding, even if it's just the patch in front of them. At the end of class and after three huge piles of oxalis, it still looked like we barely made a dent in the ratio of oxalis to vegetables. Note to self - next time, to prevent oxalis takeovers, try mulching early before the rains start.

Before weeding around the fava beans...


After weeding (one student's work)...



Mulching with straw with my afterschool class...

Amazing Volunteer Week

Last week was a busy week in the gardens as we hosted 3 large group events. Employees and students from Wells Fargo, Haas School of Business, and Blueprint Research & Design performed almost 100 hours of volunteer labor as we built worm bins and compost bins, dug new beds, and completed some general garden work. This was a fantastic start to our new composting initiative as we are on track to build new compost bins, worm bins, and compost sifters in all 7 of our sites in the next few months. Thank you so much for your time and energy, it's always so great to welcome new folks into the gardens.











To bring your group out Click Here

Garden Workday at San Francisco Community

Members and students of Urban Sprouts, Project OLE, and Justice Brothers came together for a garden workday at San Francisco Community School on a bright, sunny October afternoon.

Armed with wheelbarrows, shovels, and hand tools, we created new beds bordered by rice wattles to prevent soil erosion and to maximize garden space. Volunteers and staff also harvested summer crops, prepared compost, cleared established beds for fall planting, and carried out general garden tasks. Our day was even captured by film students from San Francisco State University for a short documentary on urban beautification in the Excelsior district.

What are we growing now in our newly prepared beds? Peas, broccoli, lettuce, spinach, radish, cover crops, garlic, yarrow, cauliflowers, strawberries...

School has been in session for only about two months but already so much has been happening in our gardens.

At ISA the high school seminar got the daunting opportunity to install a drip irrigation system for our garden. This project took a lot of team work and problem solving skills in order to piece together and bury our water pipes. The whole project could not have been done without the help of our dedicated volunteers Casey and Carter. This week we’ll also be saying goodbye to Ms. Stones, our favorite sub, who has been working with us since the beginning of the school year.

At MLK we’ve been working on soil, starting seeds and most recently: worm anatomy! We also had our first Garden Work Party at MLK. We worked on making our garden more accessible, creating a better outdoor classroom seating area and putting together tables for our greenhouse.

Urban Sprouts Grows Up

We've reached a milestone! Urban Sprouts has just finished a three-year funding cycle with the Network for a Healthy California's Local Food and Nutrition Education channel. Phew!

We've grown and matured so much during these three years - from a mostly-volunteer staff of one, to a strong team of five serving 7 schools and over 700 youth every year. We've learned that valuing our school partners and cultivating youth leadership help us to do our best. We've worked to grow and expand while staying true to our vision, of quality and consistent programs, but tailored to the needs of unique communities.

Please see for yourself! Lisa Chen on our Advisory Board and Adriani Leon on our staff created this presentation with me and we presented it in Los Angeles a few weeks ago. Take a look!

Urban Sprouts 3-Year Retrospective

View more presentations from Abby Jaramillo.

AND you MUST read this colorful, graphic and fun short handout that summarizes who we are and what we've done in our five years of school gardening! Created by Lisa Chen.

Public Policy Institute of California

A HUGE thank you to the fabulous volunteers from the Public Policy Institute of California!! This past week 6 PPIC women spent a rather warm afternoon with us, prepping the International Studies Academy garden for it's first day of classes. Armed with shovels, rakes, and a pickaxe they transformed a huge unused area of the garden into a fantastic new growing space. We are so excited to have these additional beds for our students to utilize. This is the second time we have hosted volunteers from the PPIC and we hope they are able to come back soon.

If you are interested in bringing your group or organization out to the garden please contact us at helpout@urbansprouts.org

Greens, Eggs & Jam 2009

A HUGE Thank You to everyone who attended, cooked, invited friends, helped out, and made Sunday's Greens, Eggs & Jam Garden Brunch fundraising event a delicious success!!

Over 65 people were in attendance, plus many children, and we raised over $10,400 in gifts and pledges. This is about a 30% increase in attendance from last year.

This inspiring support from our community is what enables us to keep our day-to-day work going strong for the over 700 students who count on us! Plus, we unveiled our new plans for the coming year, in which Urban Sprouts will step up as leaders in the healthy food movement by sharing our methods, our research results, and our sustainable leadership style with more schools and educators all over California and the West!

On Sunday we gathered at Ida B. Wells High School and fun was had by all. For the full photo spread, CLICK HERE. Our guests started by touring the Wells school garden, and then joined us inside to taste the harvest.

Our friends from Nopa Restaurant (below, setting up) prepared the delicious frittata pictured at top left, made with produce from our school gardens (including purple potatoes, fava beans, collard greens, kale, rosemary and sage). Nopa's biscuits and gravy were also a huge hit. (I can't wait to try out their new restaurant, Nopalito!)
Student chefs from Martin Luther King Middle School and International Studies Academy also prepared dishes, including vegetable spring rolls and pesto pasta with fava beans. Yum! Mario (at right, below) also inspired our guests with a speech about his and his classmates' experiences in the MLK school garden.

The festive ambiance was greatly enhanced by our neighborhood bluegrass musicians, led by friend of Urban Sprouts Jordan Klein on banjo.
Decorations came from our own school gardens, including flowers like these!We couldn't have pulled this off without all the wonderful help from Ida B. Wells' staff and students, Urban Sprouts' staff, Advisory Board, and volunteers, and a Saturday volunteer group from USF. Thank you!

If you didn't make it to this year's brunch, we hope to see you next time!

And don't forget, our MONTHLY GARDEN TOURS will be starting up again in May, and it's never too late to make your spring contribution to our efforts. To donate today, CLICK HERE!

Learn about the GBE Model

Tomorrow I'll be presenting on Urban Sprouts' Garden-based Education Model — the theoretical framework that guides all our programs — at the Network for a Healthy California's annual conference. I'll also give an overview of our results from our 2006-2008 Program Evaluation. You can look through my slides, below. They make a lot more sense with my narration, which I will try to record and post soon.

If you've already seen the presentation, these slides will be a helpful reminder of what we discussed. Also, check all my posts tagged gbemodel for more and click here to see an image of the full Model. Enjoy!

Urban Sprouts Presentation 3 09

View more presentations from Abby Jaramillo. (tags: education evaluation)

The State of Urban Sprouts

Enjoy this excerpt from our recent Garden Brunch event, of a speech that laid out the past, present and future plans for Urban Sprouts' work.

Our Early Days to Now
This year, Urban Sprouts has worked with over 700 students, and supported school garden programs at six middle and high schools in San Francisco’s under-served neighborhoods.

The seeds of Urban Sprouts were sown five years ago, when educator Dr. Michelle Ratcliffe conducted her dissertation research on the benefits of school gardens at three middle schools in San Francisco. When I look back to 2003, it’s amazing to realize how far we’ve come. At Luther Burbank Middle School, we encountered a few solitary teachers striving to build a garden in a bleak and neglected school by scrapping together any resources they could find. Today, Urban Sprouts partners with six schools with thriving gardens, and the Obamas are planting vegetables on the White House lawn. Times have changed.

First, I’d like to share with you some of the ways that school gardens are so transformative for youth, families, schools and communities. I’m sure you’re aware of how much the obesity epidemic affects young people, even here in San Francisco. We hear from many youth in our programs that preparing meals from food they grew themselves dramatically improves their attitudes towards healthy foods and helps them make real changes in their eating habits. When students were asked about their eating habits in focus groups last year, in 78% of responses students said they eat more fruits and vegetables than before, and in 92% of responses they said they try to eat more healthy foods and less unhealthy foods. Some examples:

“I want to be eating more greens EVERYDAY, and less sugar. I plan on sharing my knowledge about nutrition with my parents and brother.”
“The garden helps you do better in school because it keeps you healthy.”
“I do better in school now because my body is not being energized with Cheetos, it’s being energized with lettuce!”

Also, by nurturing living things in the diverse garden ecosystem students also develop their desire to protect the environment. When students were asked about the environment in focus groups last year, in 53% of responses students said they care or worry about the environment more than they did before. Some examples:

“I’m worried more about pollution because we depend on nature to survive, to grow our food, our vegetables, and trees to breathe.”
“I plan to teach my family more about soil health, and how our health relates to the world's health.”
“I want to recycle more and compost instead of put it into the landfill.”

And my favorite quote of all:

“In the garden, I learned to grow up and be a successful person.”

So you see, school gardens can be life-changing for young people. But, there’s one catch. Not just any school garden will bring about these inspiring changes. What we do in the garden with youth matters.

That’s why Urban Sprouts’ school garden programs are different. We are guided by a research-based “recipe for success” that enables our school gardens to achieve big results. Dr. Michelle Ratcliffe has developed her dissertation research into a guiding framework for garden-based education. In other words, we’re not only measuring the outcomes or results of our program, we are measuring the “inputs,” making sure that every young person gets the highest quality education in the school garden.

Our Shared Future
We’ve gathered you all here at a time when economic crisis affects us all, whether you or your loved ones have experienced job loss, retirement dreams cut short, or belt-tightening in the household budget, even affecting your day to day food choices. Today, as we look for hope, comfort and meaning, we have a great opportunity to share the power in the simple act of gardening. Victory Gardens kept our country healthy and hopeful during early 20th century wartime and Depression, and our children grew 40% of our country’s produce right in their own school gardens.

With this inspiration, this year Urban Sprouts has launched a brand new program, our Family Farmers-in-Residence program. We’ll provide school families with resources and support to plant their own food gardens right on school grounds. The Farmers-in-Residence share their cultural crops and recipes with peers and grow fresh food to feed their own families. This spring, five family teams including moms, dads, grandmothers and children, have broken ground on their family garden plots.

School gardens can also drive the demand for food grown by local and sustainable farms, as we develop a committed base of consumers. Local agriculture creates jobs and puts money in regular people’s pockets, a true local stimulus package. Our neighbors to the north, in Oregon and Washington, are creating policies that turn their public schools into engines of economic growth, as a huge market for local farm produce. By planting home gardens and spreading the word about supporting local farms, we can keep our families healthy and sow the seeds of a sustainable future.
Urban Sprouts brings this message to youth and their families in San Francisco’s working neighborhoods, investing in the next generation of green consumers, green voters, and the green collar economy.

Now, we want to share our message and our successful methods with more youth, teachers, and communities. In the coming year, we will step forward as leaders in this movement. We’ll take our show on the road, providing a series of trainings with in-depth follow-up coaching for schools and community leaders all over California and the West. We’re making plans with partners from LA to Seattle, in urban food deserts where no grocery stores exist for miles, and in Central Valley communities that ‘export’ vegetables to feed our nation but leave their own residents hungry in a rural food desert. By sharing our experiences and learning from our neighbors, we can strengthen this healthy food movement at the grassroots level, outside the Bay Area bubble.

But you know what, there’s something else that makes Urban Sprouts special. It’s the reason we’ve invited you all here today, to get to know us in person. People like us, who take a stand for our beliefs and work tirelessly to lead and organize in our communities, we often feel loneliness and burnout even as we achieve victories in our work. As we step up our leadership and broaden our reach, Urban Sprouts is planning for not only the sustainability of our programs but the personal sustainability of our leaders and members. Through careful planning, we’ll ensure that our staff feel supported, we’ll collaborate to share our increasing workload, and we’ll continue to provide living wages and health benefits to all staff. With your investment, we will step forward as leaders in this movement, sharing our methods, our vision, and our integrity. Your partnership will make all the difference.

Thank you very much.

NEW! Monthly School Garden Tours

Introducing our new monthly school garden tours!

Interested in learning more about Urban Sprouts and our school garden programs?
Want to explore how you can get involved and be a part of Urban Sprouts?
Hoping to learn more about garden-based education to bring back to your community?

Join our monthly tour at one of our school gardens, where you'll hear about how we got started, all that we do today, and our hopes and dreams for where we can go!

Meet our Executive Director, Abby Jaramillo, and learn about the journey that led her to start Urban Sprouts and to bring school gardens to over 2,400 San Francisco youth (so far). Next tour will be held on Friday, March 20th at 12:30pm, at Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School.

Read our Fall Newsletter Today!

Extra Extra! Hot off the presses! Our Fall/Winter 2008 Newsletter is ready for you. Follow this link to read about our school gardens, new board & staff, new recipes, how to make a worm bin, volunteers, donors, photos and more! It begins:

"What do School Gardens mean to you? Youth happily pulling carrots from rich, brown earth, smiling and laughing under the sun.
Instinctively, we know this is what youth need, this nourishment for their growing bodies, hearts and minds. At Urban Sprouts, we believe that school gardens can change the world. Really! School gardens can lead to big social change."

--> Read More!

The Dare Family Garden

Last Sunday was a clear warm November day. It could not have been a more enjoyable day to meet the Dare family at June Jordan to break ground for their first garden plot at the school site.

The Dare family has joined Urban Sprouts in the multicultural garden project and planted a winter garden of Pac Choi, Broccoli Raab and Snow Peas! It was a great experience to get to know JJSE student, Marcus, amidst the warmth of his family and to watch them work together to create this shared garden. We look forward to the family story about the chosen crops and the recipe to follow for the harvest!

Permaculture & Pears at ISA

I just got back from an inspiring morning at Mary Ann's Gardening Seminar at International Studies Academy (ISA). This class is 90 minutes all devoted to gardening! Today, students read an article on the importance of Compost, and wrote a short essay in response. Then, they went outside and worked on three projects in their magical garden site. This spot has so much potential!

Shaun guest-starred today and helped one group of students to dig a trench, part of the system of swales for the hillside. Guided by Permaculture principles, this technique will prevent erosion and conserve the water that runs down the hillside when it rains. Swales will divert the water via the natural curves of the hill, towards plants instead of straight into the storm drain. Diverting water from storm drains saves the city a lot of headaches, too (you're welcome, SF!).

Another group weeded this planter box of artichokes, while others pruned the squash patch and gathered fallen and trimmed branches. They began building a compost pile, with neat layers of green material (fresh, juicy and nitrogen-rich) alternating with layers of browns (dried, crunchy, carbon-rich). Once our friendly decomposers attack this pile, we'll be set with rich natural fertilizer for the spring.

After all that hard work, we enjoyed some tasty Barlett Pears from the Farmers' Market. Delicious!

Omelette, anyone?

I am VERY excited to report that our lovely chickens at June Jordan School for Equity have laid their first eggs! The students have collected almost a dozen eggs by now, since Ms. Sarah's class found the first one about a week and a half ago. We fried some of the eggs last week, chopped them into bite-sized pieces, and added them to a delicious salad, along with several varieties of lettuce, honey-mustard vinagrette, and Pippin apples from my tree at home.

Partially related to the egg-laying, recent activity in the chicken coop has sparked interesting discussions about puberty and reproduction. The rooster has started getting frisky with the hens (check out the beautiful combs he has developed!) That, combined with the appearance of eggs, has led to conversations about mating, the purpose of eggs, whether or not they might be fertilized or viable to hatch, and much more. I'll leave the rest to your imagination!

More JJSE Chicken Photos and
Read more about raising chickens!

JJSE Parent Garden

Urban Sprouts is excited to be working with parent groups at their schools. While our programming is effective with youth at school, it is strengthened when parents and families also grow their own food. This year we are looking forward to working with families to develop culturally specific gardens that reflect the rich food heritage and personal stories of the families at our schools!

The other day a June Jordan parent, Romana, came out to plant a winter garden. We talked about the preparation of the crops, Dia de Los Muertos, and Thanksgiving recipes. I look forward to learning more from her about food and cultivating!

A Chance for You to make a difference!

If you feel like I do, today’s political attack ads and gloomy financial news on TV have you hungering for meaning. For meaningful conversations about the needs in our families and our communities, and for a meaningful way to make a difference.

A new era is here: we can no longer depend on cheap food made from fossil fuels. It’s up to us, now, to push this movement over the edge: the movement to make fresh, healthy, and locally-grown food a reality for all of our families and our communities.

Remember, our youth are our future green farmers. I’d love for you to see the young people in an Urban Sprouts class. In the garden, they are laughing and smiling, reaching into the soil, pulling out bright orange carrots, and munching on them. They are talking: “organic is cool,” and “mmm . . . crunch, crunch“ can be heard as they stop for a break from the hard work of digging.

When worries creep into my mind—high gas and food prices, and the absolute mess of our fossil fuel-gobbling food system—the tranquility of the school garden and the murmur of cheerful young voices always snap me out of it.

We have SO much work to do! School gardens can transform our nation. School gardens fulfill our youth’s hunger for fresh and healthy food, and for meaningful work that makes their schools and neighborhoods safer, greener, and stronger. School gardens drive the demand for food grown by local farming families right here in our region. In fact, school gardens can help us unlock the big three issues we face: health, dependence on oil, and global warming.

That’s why today, I am inviting YOU, right now, to CLICK HERE and give a gift of $35, $50 or $125.

You can make a difference too, with your investment in our youth—the future of a fresh and local food system for our nation.

I’d like to tell you more about how your support for Urban Sprouts will make a real difference for urban youth. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE -->

SF School Gardens Conference '08!

Urban Sprouts was proud to be part of the San Francisco Green Schoolyard Alliance's 3rd Conference on October 10th-11th. The weekend was like a party for the school garden movement — new things to learn (photos at right and below), like cob building, mosaics, carpentry, and seed saving, and time to spend with old and new friends inspired by our shared mission!

Friday night we heard speaker Richard Louv, who gave us one great pep talk about how our work is changing the world! Louv's book, Last Child in the Woods, describes how youth are suffering psychologically from a lack of connection to nature, which he names nature-deficit disorder.

Louv gave us many powerful examples of how school gardens change lives. He told us that experiences in nature are therapeutic for children with hyperactivity disorders and depression, and they develop executive functioning (self-regulation or self-discipline) in kids. He described studies showing that paved schoolyards bring out aggressive games and leadership styles, namely bullying, while natural play settings bring out imaginative play and creative and collaborative leadership in children. In fact, unstructured nature-based play is so good for children, Louv recommended it as the best way to get your child to a top college. Wow! There wasn't a dry eye in the place.

On Saturday, I led a workshop titled, The Real Impacts of School Gardens: How to Make Change and Measure It. I had 3 whole hours — enough time to lead the group through our Garden-based Education Model in depth, to really understand the model and try it out on their own programs. I had enough time to create a nice flow during the workshop, complete with group games, reflection, and drawing activities! It was a great group and we all learned a lot from each other.

The response to Louv's work and the popularity of my workshop showed how much the school garden movement has matured. We are not just building school gardens because they are nice, pretty, and make kids happy. We are creating major social change. In the last few years, we have shown that school gardens impact children individually — developing children socially and psychologically, helping them succeed in school, and changing their behaviors as they eat more vegetables, exercise more, and become environmental stewards.

But, now we are seeing that school gardens do much, much more. They transform schools from their prison-yard look to a green and inviting environment, drawing families in, to make schools stronger. They make our neighborhoods cleaner, greener and friendlier. AND, school gardens teach our children to be our nation's future farmers. Our youth will enter the green collar economy in a few years, in a world where we will have been forced to design a new food system that is not dependent on fossil fuels. Our children will be growing and consuming local food, right here in our neighborhoods. And you saw it here first, in San Francisco's own schoolyards!

Above: SGFSA Conference organziers, Arden, Sharon & Rachel
Photos by Jennifer Thacher

Garden Work(out)

An outdoor gymnasium made of recycled materials?! Urban Sprouts thinks this should be on the list of garden projects! Check out Eco Gym at Good Magazine.

Join Us and Invest in Youth as Green Farmers!

Dear Friends,

If you feel like I do, today’s political attack ads and gloomy financial news on TV have you hungering for meaning. For meaningful conversations about the needs in our families and our communities, and for a meaningful way to make a difference.

A new era is here: we can no longer depend on cheap food made from fossil fuels. It’s up to us, now, to push this movement over the edge: the movement to make fresh, healthy, and locally-grown food a reality for all of our families and our communities.

Remember, our youth are our future green farmers. I’d love for you to see the young people in an Urban Sprouts class. In the garden, they are laughing and smiling, reaching into the soil, pulling out bright orange carrots, and munching on them. They are talking: “organic is cool,” and “mmm . . . crunch, crunch“ can be heard as they stop for a break from the hard work of digging.

When worries creep into my mind—high gas and food prices, and the absolute mess of our fossil fuel-gobbling food system—the tranquility of the school garden and the murmur of cheerful young voices always snap me out of it.

We have SO much work to do! School gardens can transform our nation. School gardens fulfill our youth’s hunger for fresh and healthy food, and for meaningful work that makes their schools and neighborhoods safer, greener, and stronger. School gardens drive the demand for food grown by local farming families right here in our region. In fact, school gardens can help us unlock the big three issues we face: health, dependence on oil, and global warming.

That’s why today, I am inviting YOU, right now, to CLICK HERE and give a gift of $35, $50 or $125.

You can make a difference too, with your investment in our youth—the future of a fresh and local food system for our nation.

I’d like to tell you more about how your support for Urban Sprouts will make a real difference for urban youth. Urban Sprouts leads garden-based education classes at public middle and high schools, and in the summer at a local community garden.

Our school garden programs do more than help youth to eat more vegetables and to take care of the environment. Our school gardens change the way young people feel about themselves and their communities. The school garden nurtures self-esteem and shows young people that they can change the world.

Be ready – you will be as moved as I am when you read the words of our city’s own young people, as they make real changes in their lives:

“Eat ‘Food,’ Not too much, Mostly Plants.” I don’t eat so much candy, chips and soda. I try to eat more fruits. I told my mom about a lot of things I learned here, and now she goes to the grocery store and buys more fruits and veggies.

I learned how to use the compost bin and about how everything affects our earth. I want to make sure we reduce, reuse, and recycle. I think that it impacted the middle school youth to do that at home and share with other people, because it impacted me, too.

I am more conscious of the waste I produce, especially petroleum products, and really try hard to reduce and reuse.

I want to be eating more greens EVERYDAY, and less sugar. I plan on sharing my knowledge about nutrition with my parents and brother.

Now I eat more healthy things and want to grow a garden in my backyard.

I’m about to plant my own veggies, so I won’t have to shop! (As much.) I plan to teach my family more about soil health, and about nutrition (how our health relates to the world’s health.)

I want to recycle more and compost instead of put it into the landfill.

My recycling habits have changed and I have already started to teach my family and friends.

New research shows that the difference between youth engaged with nature and youth staring at a TV screen is everything we hope for our children: self-confidence, inner strength, leadership, cooperation, and self-control.

Young people will tell you how much Urban Sprouts gave their talents and strengths a chance to shine:

Everyone in the program was touched and learned new things in different ways.

There were so many different activities around the garden so each person could find their strength or something they really enjoy doing (like the pros at shoveling manure and compost!)

I liked taking the younger youth on the garden tour because you can tell that they were getting excited and wanted to touch and taste everything, and then you get to see all they learned.

When we went on the field trip, myself and other kids were saying that they weren’t going to milk the goats. By the end I heard them talking about how they never did that before, but they did it anyways because they might never get another chance.

I was proud to see and hear youth sharing stories and their knowledge about the program with their families.

But, not just any school garden program can achieve these inspiring results for youth and communities. You need the right ingredients, or program elements, to achieve change. That’s why Urban Sprouts uses a research-tested program model, or ‘recipe for success.’

As you may know, Urban Sprouts grew out of a doctoral thesis project conducted during the 2003-04 school year. This theory-based research has guided us from the beginning, ensuring our high level of effectiveness.

Since 2003, over 1,700 youth have benefited from hands-on garden learning by growing, harvesting and eating their own vegetables. We’ve expanded to reach over 750 youth each year at six public schools: Aptos Middle School, Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School, International Studies Academy, June Jordan School for Equity, San Francisco Community School, and Ida B. Wells Continuation High School. At these schools, over 60% of youth are from low-income families and over 95% are youth of color.

Plus, families in our urban neighborhoods have to walk miles to buy fresh and locally-grown food. San Francisco’s southeast communities have four times more fast food restaurants and liquor stores than they have grocery stores.

That’s why Urban Sprouts has partnered with school families to change the food environment—by bringing fresh, healthy and organic food to youth and their families right at school.

Now, Urban Sprouts supports youth and their families in four ways:

• Garden-based Science class: Over 750 students experience hands-on lessons in environmental science and nutrition, garden work projects, and cooking projects, led by Urban Sprouts’ Garden Educators together with classroom teachers and volunteers.

• Summer Program: Each summer 20 youth enjoy two weeks of intensive gardening, cooking, eating and learning about a healthy food system. At San Francisco’s Garden for the Environment, youth learn skills, prepare a healthy lunch every day, and take home their new learning to help their families eat better and protect the environment.

• Family Programs: Our parent workshops are growing into Internships for school family members: parents will grow their own cultural foods in family plots within school garden sites! Interns receive resources and support to make family food access a reality.

• School Food and Farm Connection: Farm field trips show youth a healthy food system: goats, chickens, and plants work together in natural cycles, and food travels a short distance to reach our plate. Urban Sprouts helps our school partners advocate to bring local and fresh food into school cafeterias, through partnerships at the local, state and regional levels. Our farm-to-school partners show potential results like regional environmental health and state-wide economic growth.

And now, this is where you come in: we need you to help us reach our vision!

CLICK HERE to make an investment in Urban Sprouts today, and help us build a world where all youth and families can enjoy the fresh, organic food and the connection to nature we need to live healthy and fulfilling lives.

Please join us in this meaningful work, by sending your donation today.

Thank you very much.

Sincerely,

Abby R. Jaramillo, abby AT urbansprouts DOT org
Executive Director


P.S. We need you! Along with your gift, we’d love your ideas! You can also bring your company out for a garden volunteer day or serve on our board. Email me and I'd love to talk more!

The West's Farm to School Assembly

Last Friday I attended the Western Region Assembly for Farm to School, hosted by the lovely Michelle Ratcliffe at Ecotrust in Portland, OR. She/Ecotrust serve as the western region lead for the National Farm to School Network.

Sound like another boring meeting? NOPE! This was truly inspiring and exciting—more like a party than a meeting! First of all, many states arrived with GOOD NEWS! (Watch out San Francisco - we want to be cutting edge, but we are SO behind the times!) Representatives from Oregon, Washington and Montana shared new policies that they have passed in support of school gardens and farm-to-school programs. Their states are MAKING IT HAPPEN! Students are learning to love veggies by growing their own food, and school cafeterias are serving products grown and prepared fresh from their local farms, while strengthening the local economy at the same time. We even got to taste some local school food. Yum!

The major theme of the meeting was, with all this energy and forward momentum, how do we "think like a region" and support each other to make our efforts even stronger and more impacting! Any thoughts, all you westerners?

Also, I finally met in person many of my role models, like Rose Hayden-Smith of Victory Gardens fame, and Sandy Curwood, Director of Food Services for the Ventura public schools (who has made huge strides in getting local farms' fresh food into the school cafeterias!). Plus I spent time with many other amazing Farm-to-Schoolers representing California, Washington, Idaho, and Montana. San Francisco was quite conspicuously missing, while Davis, Santa Cruz, and Los Angeles were out in full force!

For a great overview of the research to date in support of school gardens and farm to school programs follow these links. (If anyone tells you it's not working, don't believe em!!)

And, join our new Facebook group to keep in touch! Props to everyone who is creating the Farm to School revolution!