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.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

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!
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2 comments:

  1. Rachel NeumannNovember 18, 2011 at 11:38 AM

    I'm amazed at how much you were already able to harvest from the garden! More pictures, please.

    ReplyDelete
  2. MBreedNovember 26, 2011 at 7:59 PM

    Wow, Liza. Just read Eaarth by Bill McKibben and this is exactly what we ALL need to be doing. Right on!!!!

    ReplyDelete

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