“KIDS GIVE BACK: The Food Bank Project” Los Angeles school gardens grow fresh food for VIC (Valley Interfaith Council) food banks and other organizations serving low-income Los Angeles residents.
The Food Bank Project is lead by Alice Debbaudt and Susan Ji-Young Park.
Alice Debbaudt is a garden specialist for LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District) Instructional School Garden Program and founding board member of Farming’s Future (www.farmingsfuture.org ).
Yvone Savio of University of California Extension’s Common Ground Garden Program in Los Angeles County provides seeds and assistance to schools through volunteer master gardeners. Master gardeners help low-income residents grow vegetables and fruits in community, school and senior gardens, and at homeless and battered women’s shelters.
Alice Debbaubt is recruiting schools to turn their gardens into “microfarms” for succession planting and harvesting. So far schools have signed up to grow tomatoes, lettuce and sugar snap peas.
Succession planting and harvesting teaches children time and resource management, crop rotation and sustainable practices.
VIC (Valley Interfaith Council) Food Bank Coalition volunteers pick up the fresh produce at schools, then sort and package them for distribution. Currently VIC food banks serve over 80,000 people a month in the San Fernando Valley and Palmdale. According to Ileene S. Parker, Committee Chair and Executive Director of VIC, numbers are expected to swell to 100,000 within the next few months.
Susan Ji-Young Park of ACA: Project Green Algeria and Alice Debbaudt are helping children harvest food crop seeds from their microfarms. The Seed Bank Project is part of a larger education exchange program and global civics club with California school gardens and Project Green Algeria. The seeds will be sent to school, homestead and community gardens; and subsistence farmers in North Africa and Burundi.
Chef Farid Zadi started a Seed Bank Club at The California School of Culinary Arts (CSCA) where he is currently an instructor. The club also functions as a volunteer group for chefs and culinary students to teach school children and low-income and residents in the area how to prepare fast, tasty and nutritious meals using a combination of fresh produce and prepared foods. Chef Farid Zadi is a former chef in the classroom for Los Angeles Unified School District’s Nutrition Network.
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