Another Country / Magnificent Transitions Over the Course of One Year

by Ray Pultinas

This past July marks one year of my quasi-retirement after teaching at DeWitt Clinton High School for 25 consecutive years – a quarter of a century - and wouldn’t you know it, I’ve grown not only roots, but stems, fruits and flowers.  And I try to take good care of them too.  I’m learning to be ever more mindful of what plants might need – compost or mulch or moisture or light or less light, if possible, and so much more.  You might say that the plants, the buds, the flowers, and by extension, the bees, the butterflies and turquoise colored dragon flies, the worms, (especially) the mosquitos, even the rabbits (most annoyingly) are using me.  I have become their tool, but I don’t mind.   It gives me great joy to be of use and delightfully coincides with my transition from having been a formal educator to becoming a non-formal educator. 

First graders from PS 4, The Duke Ellington School who visited Meg's Garden in May.

butterfly balm

Becoming an informal educator

We are now in the third growing season at Meg’s Garden and slowly and surely the garden has attracted countless regal pollinators, beautiful monarchs and black swallowtails, golden and purple finches, squirrels, bats, opossum, rabbits (most regrettably)  - to name those we’ve personally witnessed.  But it has also attracted community: Sung Kim, fellow passionist of permaculture and gardening, has helped us increase both diversity and productivity in the garden; Laura Chevnon has donated numerous beloved plants and shares with us her gardening wisdom and skills; former Environmental Affairs Club members and DeWitt Clinton High School graduates Clarissa Reclaimier, Jocelyn Bautista, Yelissa Vasquez, Maribel Vitagliani have been studying gardening while helping to plant, water, mulch, weed, and harvest now for 6 years and are introducing the next generation, their little nieces, nephews and siblings Kylie, Seth and Paul to the garden experience.  There are so many others in our community who are helping me to learn and we are teaching each other.  We witness pedestrians stopping to admire the garden, some venture in to ask questions or sign up and some I know are about to.   We are adding to our contact list of nearly 300 community members, volunteers, supporters, guests, visitors and admirers.

Yelissa and Jocelyn with Daikon Radishes

Yelissa and Seth

This past spring, we witnessed the fulfillment of what first seemed to many, a far-fetched idea: the transition of a former chemistry lab at DeWitt Clinton High School, room 332, into a state of the art hydroponic farm.  The Sun Club Teens For Food Justice Hydroponic Farm is a reality and history was made on March 22 when Sustainability students brought the first two lugs of butter crunch lettuce to the student cafeteria making healthy, fresh, local grown produce available to all students who attend the DeWitt Clinton campus.  Students from Ms. Sun’s three sustainability classes, an ELL class called Human Impact from Bronx Collaborative that I co-taught with Ariel Nadelstern, and Work Study/TOP Program students that I supervised helped construct the systems that will now grow over 25,000 lbs. of leafy green vegetables and 9,000 lbs. of vine crops on the farm per year. The Sun Club Teens for Food Justice Hydroponic Farm is the bold fruition of our partnership with Kathy Soll, CEO and director of Teens For Food Justice.  To have witnessed a new, state of the art hydroponic farm in our nearly century old building is a dream come true.  The farm not only produces fresh produce to serve to students, but distributes its surplus to our site based Good Shepherd Food Pantry, City Harvest and directly engages students with site based, hands-on sustainability, science, nutrition, career and work training.  Many other educational, teaching and learning opportunities and are yet to be realized but have now become possible.  

First delivery to student cafeteria

Harvesting on the hydroponics farm

Inspired by the continued success and expansion of our school and community gardens, the establishment of our edible forest, our successful partnerships with Teens For Food Justice and numerous other community organizations, our being awarded an National Endowment for the Arts Work Grant and, perhaps most especially, our continued willingness and freedom to dream and commit ourselves to “making it better” we incorporated as a non profit named the James Baldwin Outdoor Learning Center on March 23, 2018.  Our mission: to strive for inquiry-based solutions at the juncture of food, environmental and social justice.  Our organization utilizes existing and planned school resources, grounds and gardens to develop programs in outdoor environmental education for sustainable living and food preparation/service.  Our goal is to build a healthier community by integrating, educating and serving students and community members, especially low income and marginalized people, in collaboration with numerous partner organizations with common interests.

The James Baldwin Outdoor Learning Center will be comprised of two hubs connected by an accessible trail with a series of program spaces that run along the trail between them.  Accessibility is essential to guarantee equal access for all students and community members presently thwarted by steep stairs and narrow automobile ramps in surroundings marked overall by prohibitively dangerous highway intersections and barriers to surrounding green spaces.   Our Community Hub will be the welcoming gateway, a destination for healthy and sustainable living, a place where neighbors can meet and learn with each other about sustainable practices that support the health and future of the earth while sharing good food and community spirit.   The School Hub will be a versatile and intimate conference, classroom, and garden space guided by an ethos of social justice, environmental justice and food justice.  Here will be the Welcome Table to memorialize the celebrated American writer and DeWitt Clinton High School graduate, class of 1942 and to promote dialogue, sharing, responsibility, and unity.

SYEP in action!

This past summer, in collaboration with Teens For Food Justice and the Transition and College Access Center, whose Bronx headquarters is now based at DeWitt Clinton High School, we hosted our first Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) and it was a great success.  Fifteen students rotated through three interrelated work programs either working outside in the gardens, inside on the hydroponics farm or within our community doing food justice advocacy.  We also suceeded at establishing our youthmarket in which we sold produce grown right on our campus.   We are expecting to continue the operation of our market this fall.


Could it be that we have found Another Country?


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