By
Kevin Connor,
Toronto Sun
Leslie Street Spit Update: June-July 2024
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Salad days at inner-city school
title="Sun Oct 15 2017 14:04:56 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)"
datetime="2017-10-15T18:04:56Z"
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Sunday, October 15, 2017 02:04 PM
EDT
TORONTO - Tyler Beckett
wants to be a landscaper and the urban farming program on
the roof of his inner-city school has greened his thumb.
“It’s helping get me prepare for a job when I’m done
school,” said the 16-year-old Eastdale Collegiate
Institute student in the Regent Park area. “I like getting
involved with the garden and helping the kids in school.
We used to go to the corner and buy chips, now we are
eating salads.” Eastdale Collegiate is an “impoverished”
high school and half the students function at a Grade 3
level, said principal Brian Hill. These kids are from
homes where buying fresh produce isn’t a priority, he
said. “As educators, we see the negative effects of poor
eating habits and lack of healthy food literacy among
students first hand. (Urban farming) is helping us educate
our students about the importance of healthy eating and
how to grow and prepare healthy food. It helps change
their eating habits, gives them skills and instils in them
life-long knowledge to make healthy food choices,” Hill
said. “Our kids can’t make it in a regular school. We have
kids who didn’t go to school last year. They can come from
homes from generational welfare families or where there
are mental-health issues. Our kids could have a bad day
because their parents didn’t come home last night. The
kids have huge needs,” Hill said. Eastdale provides a
breakfast, lunch and snack daily — including school-grown
salads — for the 120 students. It costs about $12 a day
for per student. “We have students that ask for seconds,
and we can only give one. Many don’t get a meal
afterwards,” Hill said. The 16,000-square-foot roof-top
includes 450 garden planters where a variety of fruits and
vegetables are grown. Josh Harrison-Maul, 16, is thinking
about becoming a chef and has been inspired by those
working in the local industry. The school has a
professional industry standard kitchen where students
prepare the produce a roll out a salad food cart to the
cafeteria as part of lunch. “We bring in visiting
racialized chefs to talk about working in the world of
food. The kids can see themselves, reflected in these
chefs,” said Paul Taylor, executive director of FoodShare
Toronto, a sponsor of the growing program. “It’s amazing
what happens when you get kids excited about growing
food.” Student Josh initially only became involved to
learn how grow food on his balcony. “When you’re cooking,
you need to know where the food comes from,” Josh said.
”That is why I took the seed to market course.” Students
sell surplus at local farmer’s markets. Eastdale recently
added a number of hydroponic tower garden devices which
can be used year-round in classrooms to grown produce. “We
have lettuce coming out of our ears,” Hill said. One in
six Canadian children live with “food insecurities,”
according to statistics. Eastdale is one of schools
benefiting from groups like The Good Food Machine with in
school programs to promote healthy eating. “We are
thrilled to see the positive impact ... helping to change
the eating habits off children for the better,” said
spokesman Angela Simo Brown with another another corporate
sponsor, LoyaltyOne. The roof garden not only educates
about food but can be transformed into a science
laboratory. Science teacher Dave Servos brought in Monarch
butterfly eggs and the roof top turned into a nursery
where students harvested milkweed plants and watched the
eggs turn into caterpillars and then butterflies. “They
flew away and went to Mexico. It was something,” Tyler
said. The roof garden is a year-long project. In the fall,
there is the harvest and students plant seeds for the
following year’s bounty. During the summer, students are
hired to water and maintain the gardens. The program is a
“hidden gem” and “practical,” said city Councillor Paula
Fletcher. “The food is locally grown and locally used.
Students learn how things grow and how to nurture,”
Fletcher said. Link to article: http://www.torontosun.com/2017/10/15/salad-days-at-inner-city-school
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