It’s a beautiful autumn afternoon, and 21 third-graders are learning about nutrition and environmental science as part of their daily school lesson. But they aren’t sitting in a classroom. They are wandering through furrows of rich, dark soil, surrounded by rows of lettuce, onions, carrots and other produce on the sun-dappled San Mateo County coast.
“This is an organic farm,” says Sara Neale, their guide. “Do you know what organic means?”
“Original?” said one boy, shrugging his shoulders.
“It means we don’t use any chemicals,” she says, smiling.
For the next hour, the kids picked cilantro, tomatoes and other produce, learning about bugs, nutrition and environmental science, and ultimately cutting up what they harvested and eating it on tacos they made. It’s all part of a curriculum that continued for weeks after they returned to their classroom at El Granada Elementary School.
“Remember this saying: Don’t yuk my yum,” Neale told them. “If somebody is trying something for the first time, don’t say it’s gross.”
For more than 20 years, the HEAL Project, a nonprofit educational group based in Half Moon Bay, has brought classrooms full of students to a two-acre farm just off Highway 1 across from the tiny Half Moon Bay airport and surrounded by the rolling hills of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The organization runs programs to help kids learn about science — like the parts of a plant — along with practical advice on where their food comes from and how to eat healthier.
“It’s a real hands-on experience,” said Brett Schilke, the organization’s executive director. “Kids touch and feel and try all kinds of foods they might not otherwise get to see. They harvest it themselves, and make it into something that they eat. Often it’s their first time on a farm, their first time cutting up vegetables, their first time eating some of these foods. It’s a way for kids to get in touch with the natural world and the foods they are putting in their bodies.”
Over the past year, the program served 4,100 students, most of them 2nd, 3rd and 4th graders from across San Mateo County. Of those, 3,600 kids participated in field visits, and another 500 were in the group’s summer day camps or garden programs at their schools.
Overall, 36% of the kids came from low-income schools in places like Redwood City, East Palo Alto and Daly City.
The farm visits may seem like a simple fun field trip, but they contain important information that can help kids learn about everything from childhood obesity to climate change, supporters say.
“This is long-term education,” Schilke said. “We are looking at setting a foundation for these kids that will last for years to come. We hear an endless stream of stories from parents and the community who say “my kid would never try vegetables, and now they are begging me to go to the store and buy chard.” I was just talking to a parent a few days ago who said her kids are now in their 20s, and they say they remember being here as kids and what they ate.”
The group, whose acronym stands for “Health, Environmental and Agricultural Literacy,” began in 2001 with a group of Half Moon Bay parents who established a school garden on the San Mateo Coast. It grew, becoming a stand-alone nonprofit a few years later, and now has 15 staff members, a board of 12 people, and about 90 volunteers, along with an annual budget of $768,000.
Schools pay to visit the farm. But schools from areas with the lowest household income or highest percent of English-language learners are allowed to come for a lower rate, or for free. The organization is asking Wish Book donors for $25,000 to help cover the costs of visits from schools in the most underserved communities.
During the recent visit, Stacey Walsh, a 3rd grade teacher at El Granada, said visits to the farm help her teach environment and science lessons.
“Often kids learn more by doing activities like being in nature, seeing things, smelling things, and tasting things rather than looking at a screen or a book,” she said. “You can’t pick a vegetable in a book.”
On the most recent trip, after the kids learned the parts of a plant, and what aphids are, and the difference between a tomato and a tomatillo, they picked produce and headed for an outdoor eating kitchen area.
Neale handed out small knives, went over knife safety tips, and told them they were making tacos.
“You are the chef,” she said. “You decide what to cut up and put on your taco. I urge you to try everything.”
They dutifully cut everything up, rolled it into flour tortillas, and eagerly dove in.
“I love green onions,” said third grader Ashley Murray. “They make everything taste better. It’s very pretty out here. I like how you can try new things. I learn more on the farm than in the class.”
Nearby, her classmate, John Lacerda, had just finished picking onions, and wasn’t yet convinced he should eat some.
“It’s kind of fun,” he said. “You get to learn about plants. I never had a tomatillo before. I had never been to a farm before this one.”
Would he eat the onions and cilantro?
“I’ll try a carrot,” he said smiling.
Across the table, his friend, Wolf Guel, was devouring his taco.
“I like to grow all different kinds of vegetables,” he said. “They take really good care of the plants here. I learned that plants need water, sun, soil and air, and we should take care of them.”
THE WISH BOOK SERIESWish Book is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization operated by The Mercury News. Since 1983, Wish Book has been producing series of stories during the holiday season that highlight the wishes of those in need and invite readers to help fulfill them.
WISHDonations will help support the The Heal Project‘s farm field trip program, including staffing, garden supplies, tools, kitchen ingredients and transportation stipends. Goal: $25,000
HOW TO GIVEDonate at wishbook.mercurynews.com/donate or mail in this form.
ONLINE EXTRARead other Wish Book stories, view photos and video at wishbook.mercurynews.com.
