Building garden beds and pea trellises

Last Wednesday

we had about 16 students help to build a new garden bed and some trellises for our peas.

Everyone wanted to get a chance to use the hand saw and the power drill. By the end the cuts were pretty straight!

Here Fatima is measuring out a cut.

The pea trellises came out beautifully, thanks to Tomi Kobara, a neighbor of the school and a landscape architect who donated some of her time to help out!

Here Sosina and Tati are setting the middle support board for the garden bed.

By the end of the day, all the boys had left and seven dedicated young woman stayed to finish the garden bed and clean up. They were proud of their work and excited to build the next one! We had some debate about where it should go, we need more sunny spots was the end conclusion. We hope to plant into this garden bed by the middle of January.

This week at OIHS

This week, we cooked collards following the directions of Alicia, one of our new 9th graders from Guatemala. We cooked them with onions and tomatoes and they were delicious! I was so impressed with the knowledge and confidence our students took on the kitchen this week. We served the collards for lunch to our school community.
Also this week I started teaching yoga class! I've had 8-10 students in each class and we're having a great time!

Cooking and Gardening

The following photos are from two days of harvesting and cooking with a few small groups of students. We harvested mustard greens, kale, bok choy, collards, lettuce and cilantro. We then served the food to all 300 students at lunch. We made a salad with butter lettuce, a cilantro spread on crackers and cooked greens with lemon and garlic. We got great feedback from many students who tried our tasty fresh offerings. The chef students were amazing, focused, hard working, with very positive attitudes. They also worked really well together. I can't wait to do more cooking with them. I'm working on getting a cooking cart so we can have a little more space and more kids can be involved. This week we will cook greens following a recipe from one of the students who loves cooked greens and wants to try cooking them her way!

Biking to San Francisco

During Thanksgiving break we took BART over to San Francisco and rode along the Embarcadero to Crissy Fields. The photo on the left is taken in downtown SF, right outside BART.

These photos are taken right above Fort Mason, we had a perfect clear windless day. Special thanks to Courtney and Grey for riding with us!

The last few weeks...

We've had a busy few weeks at the community garden and wellness program!
In Bike Club, we took BART up to El Cerrito Del Norte and had a lovely ride all the way home.




Brisa, Tenzin and Ahng Sann and I made a salad from our garden and served it at lunch!



We had a special garden day with all the Biology classes. With the help of Grey Kolevzon and Zack Reidman we split the classes into three groups and did various garden projects, setting up a compost bin, planting seeds in Shady Grove, and cleaning up the Courtyard garden, adding new soil and planting fava beans. Seems like all the students got something out of it and it was great to be able to have all six classes in the gardens!


We also got our "Green Team" started! It is a dedicated group of about 20 students who are meeting with me every Thursday at lunch to discuss issues of waste, garbage and energy use at OIHS! We are planning some exciting projects that will hopefully reduce the amount of waste produced at OIHS. Some of the Green Team members volunteered at the Greenfest in San Francisco this past weekend.

We have joined SLWRP, Service Learning Waste Reduction Program. So far it's a great resource and support for our budding Green Team!
I was also fortunate enough to get to participate in the Food Justice Conference hosted by the Community Food Security Coalition. I went to workshops that discussed changing school food and bringing more local farm produce to schools. Good food for thought, no pun intended!

Food for our families

Last Wednesday the Garden Club harvested a bunch of food from our garden to pass it out to families that were coming for parent/teacher conferences. We harvested kale, chard, cilantro, mint, eggplant, peppers and tomatoes.

Pedalfest 2011

Last Saturday a handful of students went to the Oakland Pedalfest with me to check out the cool bike stuff happening around the Bay. We all loved the BMX tricks!

In the courtyard we removed a lot of undergrowth, some saplings and trimmed back all the plants, harvested the lavender and made them into bunches, added some new soil, put borders around the beds so the soil won't fall out and planted a cover crop for the winter.

Bike club rode to Olhone Park in North Berkeley. Students playing a game of tag on the geo-structure.

Shoreline Clean Up Day!

On Saturday, September 17th we joined thousands of other folks in California to help clean up the shoreline! 20 students from OIHS volunteered their Saturday to pick up millions of pieces of trash in the hot sun! Every year around the world people do a shoreline clean up day and categorize the garbage that then helps the government make policies around reducing the amount of plastic that is produced. Come join us next year!

Here are a few photos of the beginning of the garden. Clay Mu, Hel Say and Tenzin harvesting some tomatoes from an old garden planted by Refugee Transitions. Soybeans that Ms. Thi started and gave to us. Tenzin in the sunlight. Free soil at sunrise from the city of Berkeley.

Hello! Welcome to the official blog for Oakland International High School's Community Garden and Wellness Program! My name is Liza Jade Richheimer. I am one of the founding teachers at OIHS. This year thanks to a generous family foundation, I am lucky enough to be the coordinator of the Community Garden and Wellness Program.
My goals for the program are: to build and grow on-site gardens with students through science classes and after-school programs, to run after-school bike club twice a week, to teach a cooking class and a winter yoga class, to support Oakland Unified School District's mission of improving their cafeteria food, and to create a culture of environmental stewardship at our school.

About Me

I am the coordinator of the Community Garden and Wellness Program at Oakland International High School. I have worked at Oakland International High School since its inception. I also taught in New York at two different International Schools. I have taught Science, Nutrition and Health, and Yoga. At OIHS I have worked as the Coordinator of Student Interventions, the Parent Coordinator, the Mental Health Coordinator and the PE teacher and Science teacher. I have been working in education for 20 years. I have worked as an environmental educator and as an outdoor educator. From these experiences I have found that my primary focus and intention is to create authentic, hands-on experiences for my students that broaden their perspective and expand their access to healthy choices. I would like for everyone to have access to healthy, fresh produce, bicycles, and a little bit of soil to grow some food!