The School That Food Saved

I’ve recently finished reading and discussing Bob Hewitt’s The Town That Food Saved (2009) with a book group I belong to. Hewitt writes an honest and reflective profile of a group of a dozen or so men and women whose synergistic efforts help transform the once depressed town of Hardwick, Vermont into a healthier and more vital community full of not only good economic opportunities in hard times but good local food. As I reflect back on a historic meeting that took place at the Clinton Garden earlier this summer, I can’t help but dream of a day in the future when we might similarly declare that our own DeWitt Clinton High School was saved by food.  

How can food save us? 


I believe that food and what we do with it and how we think about it are at the very heart of sustainable practice. By eating the right kind of food in the right amounts (as well as the proper exercise) we keep our bodies healthy and vital – a precondition for all other sustainable practices to follow. In order to eat the right food, however we must trust its source and know where it comes from, where and how it was grown. Was it produced at the expense of the further deterioration of the earth? Was it treated with chemicals that could harm our bodies?  If it was, this kind of food will ultimately not save us.  For food to be sustainable it must be produced sustainably and that means produced outside of the industrialized factory food system.  Of course I realize that our garden itself cannot feed the entire population of students on our campus (at least not yet) but our garden can serve as a model for how food can be grown with sustainable practices that do not compromise its quality and nutrition.  In terms of our scale, we can do in the garden what we as part of a public institution of learning should do, educate our students about the sustainable practices that will ultimately save us.  These to me are the core issues of our time and must be reflected by what are bound to become the core standards of our time.  And it all began in the garden.



July 19, 2013 was an absolutely scorching day of 100° temperature and high humidity; nevertheless, a team of professionals and students from the Environmental Affairs Club gathered at the Clinton Garden to discuss how we might work together towards a more sustainable DeWitt Clinton High School. I called the meeting as the school’s new sustainability coordinator because I had a sense of the enormous task ahead of us and I wanted to begin to gather a team willing to continue their service and support to our school as consultants and allies in an effort to make sustainability a community practice at our school.  My thinking is that this is not a job for any one person, not even for any one group or for that matter, any one school. To succeed we must all make a united effort as we help each other prepare for and adapt to a rapidly changing planet. I think that the fact that a team assembled despite the discomfort of the high temperature is an indication of the dedication each of us have in making a difference. Perhaps these individuals and groups will comprise the "collective efficacy" necessary to make our DeWitt Clinton campus a model of sustainability in high schools across and beyond the city.  

Pictured standing from left: Bronx Collaborative High School founder and principal Brett Schneider; Director of the Environmental Education Program at GrowNYC Mike Zamm; Farm Educator at The Battery Conservancy Anna Scott Ellis, Director of the Citywide School Garden Initiative at Grow to Learn NYC Julianne Schrader; DeWitt Clinton High School English Teacher, Gardener and Sustainability Coordinator Raymond Pultinas, Coordinator of Garden to Café (GrowNYC) George Edwards; Compost Educator and Project Manager of the NYC Compost Project in the Bronx, Jodie Colón; School Garden Community Liaison for Grow to Learn NYC Matt Mili; World View High School Principal Daniel Nichols; DeWitt Clinton High School Assistant Principal Margaret Glendis and DeWitt Clinton High School Principal Santiago Taveras.  Sitting from left to right, Environmental Affairs Club students from DeWitt Clinton High School: Catherine Cobrera, Tiffany Mfoafo, Sarah Rivera, and Maribel Vitagliani.  Missing from picture: School Garden Advocacy Group Leader Michele Israel.

This is my 3^rd year as advisor of DeWitt Clinton High School's Environmental Affairs Club and I see the club playing an increasingly vital role at our school and in our world. I am committed this year to making the EAC a force in our school’s current transformation.  We must also continue to work together to bring awareness to our fellow students of our environmental crisis and inspire an active response to the environmental problems in and out of our school. In this era of global warming and diminishing resources amidst overwhelming evidence of mankind’s disregard for the planet in its pursuit of technical progress and self-serving power and wealth, there is, in my opinion, no greater cause than the environment.  What is at stake is the very air, water, earth and energy that sustains our life.  As our school’s sustainability coordinator I am especially interested in expanding the club’s influence in terms of recycling.   

With this in mind, I am proposing the following goals for the 2013/2014 school year:

1. To continue to maintain and grow the Clinton Garden

The garden has become the heart, soul and nourishment of our club.  It can become the site of a core curriculum of eco-literacy in our school because we have demonstrated through our hard work and commitment how a space in the school can thrive even when the school itself is teetering.  The garden embodies the values of  sustainability namely careful observation, thoughtful attention, mindfulness, patience, caring, respect, health and well being.

2. Develop an extensive plan for the garden expansion.

This includes use of permaculture principles and practices to grow fruit starting this spring.  Blueberries, raspberries, grapes, gooseberries, strawberries and other fruit bushes will be planted along with native plants that are already flourishing in our garden.  Additionally, planting annuals like tomatoes and squash will help transform The Clinton Garden into an edible forest.  We are also going to pursue the idea of a fruit tree orchard on the West side of the gym building.  What we still need are plans for student seating and an outdoor classroom space so that we can eventually make the garden a site of interdisciplinary learning.

3. Expand our composting stream to include collection and composting of cafeteria vegetable prep scraps.

Currently we have three methods for making compost.  We have a three bin compost bin that EAC students built themselves and this is for composting garden waste. We have a tumbler for recycling vegetable scraps from the kitchen and we have several worm bins that also compost vegetable kitchen scraps. If anything has helped make our garden prosper it is the soil.  We have never used any inorganic fertilizers or chemicals.  The healthy food we grow comes from the way we feed the soil with compost.  We currently have the capacity to compost our cafeteria's vegetable prep scraps.

4. Double our school’s recycling of paper waste and finally educate students to comply with mandates and laws requiring the separation of recyclables. 

Our goal in this regard is to become recognized as recycling champions who will educate fellow students about our obligations to be responsible for our school waste.  We will work with Grow NYC's Bronx Outreach Coordinator for the Recycling Champions Program Ifeoma Nwoke on projects to educate our students.  Our obligation is to save, reduce, recycle, upcycle, reuse as well as practice other habits of caring for our school and our environment.   

5. Recruit students from throughout the Clinton campus regardless of grade, level, track or school.

To accomplish our many goals we need more positive student power.  We need to recruit students who have a passion for the environment and not just a passion to socialize.  We need student action and this will only come with greater numbers of active members.  

6. Inspire environmental awareness presentations for fellow club members and active participation in events throughout the Borough and City.

We need to consider ourselves a work group involved in educating each other during club meetings about relevant environmental issues that affect our lives.  In addition we need to inspire participation not only in our own club sponsored events but in events sponsored by our allies like GrowNYC, Friends of Van Cortlandt Park,  Bronx Green-Up, Greenthumb, Bronx River Alliance, and Bronx Council of Environmental Quality and others.

7.  Raise funds and write grants to support and expand the garden and for our annual EAC overnight trip.

Since the spring of 2010 we have raised at least $10,000 for the garden through grants and generous donations.  For over ten years we have done an overnight trip.  Last spring ten members of the EAC went to Hawthorne Valley Farm, a working, biodynamic farm with an awesome learning center.  We need to continue to raise money for our garden expansion and our club's activities and trips.

8. Plan our next Harvest Celebration event on October 3 that will include a Garden to Café prepared meal for students using vegetables from our own garden and a greenmarket for faculty and students.

Though we can't feed everyone from the garden we can provide a meal for our students and we could also sell locally grown and purchased vegetables for our community.  This year, our Harvest Celebration will be held on October 3 and negotiations are under way to have this be our Harvest Sale Day as well.  Perhaps we could also provide guided tours of The Clinton Garden.

9. Plan to participate in the Big Apple Crunch on October 24^th.

What will it sound like if everyone in our building bit into a fresh apple at noon on October 24th?  Let's participate in this activity.

10.  Certify our garden with the National Wildlife Federation as a Schoolyard Habitat. 

We have witnessed countless varieties of butterflies, goldfinches the color of canaries and hummingbirds in our garden.  We need to provide these and other creatures a safe haven in our busy world.

11. Continue to think Big, think critically, and anticipate unintended consequences and contingencies.

I guess that's my problem.  I like to think big.  I haven't shared half of my ideas, but with our new administration in place and with the assurance that change is on the way, who knows how far we can go?  I intend that this blog will document our progress on these and additional goals that surface along the way.

Paid in Kale

Last Thursday, July 25, Marii of the EAC and I harvested 10 lbs of kale on a cool cloudy morning – one of the first breaks in the heat that we had for over a week.  3 lbs of the kale were the variety called Red Russian – long, bunny ear shaped smooth leaves.  7 lbs were of the curly variety and 6 lbs of these have already been dehydrated to make a little over a ½ lb of kale chips.  I’ll bring some of these back to the garden to sample with students. Marii took 1lb of each type of kale home and she seemed to walk so proudly carrying her kale when I passed her on my bike in front of the school on my way home.   I took home 8 lbs in total, I have 2 lbs of the Red Russian still in my refrigerator in a green bag – waiting to be prepared or frozen (knowing that each day I wait, the vitamin content diminishes).  For each of us, kale was our reward for working in the garden. No money exchanged, we volunteer our hours, but we receive a share of what the garden provides to us. If more student gardeners had come, more would have received a share to take home.

There are basic rewards in keeping a garden that do not nor ever will rely on money. The earth gives us something directly in exchange for its care.   I’ve become interested in recent studies that indicate health benefits from just working the soil, touching and breathing it in.   A strain of bacterium in the soil, Mycobacterium vaccae, has been found to trigger the release of seratonin the neurotransmitter associated with feelings of well-being and happiness (see: http://www.healinglandscapes.org/blog/2011/01/its-in-the-dirt-bacteria-in-soil-makes-us-happier-smarter/).   There is also the satisfaction of having the opportunity to grow and eat fresh organic vegetables and fruit with the knowledge that no fossil fuels, artificial ingredients, chemicals, hormones, inorganic fertilizers or pesticides were ever used in its production.  Even more basic is the joy of being outside, in the sun, breathing fresh air. 

The rewards do not end even if we are thinking in terms of money value.  Were I to buy 8 lbs of organic kale I would have to spend at least 1.60/ lb. and so I received kale that would cost at least $13.00.  Incidently, dehydrated raw kale chips typically sell at Whole Foods for about $7.99 for a 2.5 ounce container.  Therefore, by dehydrating our own kale we added value to our crop – and if we needed to put a price on it, the 6 lbs I dehydrated could have been purchased for about $30.  But if we just concern ourselves with monetary profit, we are missing the point.  Another value of kale is in its outstanding and well known nutritional benefits: high in iron, calcium, antioxidants, protein, Vitamins C and K (see: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/drew-ramsey-md/health-benefits-kale_b_3529768.html ).

While I would welcome paid hours for myself and students and am committed to securing funds for this purpose, I also feel deeply rewarded already from sharing in the garden’s bounty.  In a sense this is receiving the work of the garden in exchange for having worked in the garden.  There is no better exchange with the little piece of earth that we’re caring for.