Teaching middle school can be a real test of wills, but the Edible Schoolyard has been passing that test for years. It’s a cooking and gardening program wholly integrated into the school’s daily life. The organic garden is flourishing and the kitchen is filled with delicious smells, music, and enthusiastic young chefs. Students work together to shape and plant beds, amend soil, turn compost, and harvest flowers, fruits, and vegetables. In the kitchen classroom, students prepare and eat delicious seasonal dishes from produce they have grown in the garden.

The Garden is designed and maintained using sound ecological practices that are reflected in all aspects of the project, from the way the food is grown, harvested and prepared, to the recycling of waste back into the earth. Located on the campus of Martin Luther King Junior Middle School in Berkeley, California, the nonprofit program grew out of a conversation between gourmet chef and author Alice Waters, and former King Middle School Principal Neil Smith more than a decade ago. For her efforts in bringing the program to fruition, Alice Waters was one of 10 people in the nation awarded the John Stanford Education Heroes Award by the U.S. Secretary of Education in 1999. Ms. Waters is the owner of the nationally renowned restaurant Chez Panisse in Berkeley.

To learn more about the Edible Schoolyard and how you can start a program at your school click here: The Edible Schoolyard