- Author: Ariel Smoke
4-H Youth Development Advisor Bobby Withrow-Clark has been busy developing a partnership with Washington School and the PUENTES educational farm to teach urban 4th and 5th graders about sustainable gardening and farming. The collaboration goes by the name "Sustainable Urban Farming Project", or SUFP for short.
Bobby draws upon San Joaquin County 4-H's resources to design curriculum and activities for the group and he facilitates their experiential learning activities each week. His goal is to reach out to youth who are not already served by the 4-H club program and provide positive youth development opportunities to them. He also hopes that these youth will consider establishing a local 4-H club after experiencing this program through their school.
PUENTES is a human services and development organization based in Stockton California. PUENTES does not give people food; rather they give people the opportunity to grow food for their families and community. They have set aside a large lot on their farm for this collaboration, including a greenhouse. Participants also have access to various crops, fruit trees, chickens, quail, and bee hives. The farm plans to add dairy goats and a clay pizza oven (which will be used to bake pizzas made with ingredients straight from the farm of course!) in the near future. http://puentes-americas.org/
Washington School is a K-8 public school near downtown Stockton. Students in 4th and 5th grade are given the opportunity to go to the school's plot on the PUENTES farm every Tuesday from 2:00-3:30pm. http://gwes-susd-ca.schoolloop.com/.
The program goals and objectives include:
- Exposure to agricultural - specifically sustainable urban agriculture
- Exposure to 4-H (hopefully leading to greater participation & a future club in that area of Stockton)
- Science Literacy
- Plant and Animal Science
- Environmental Science
- Biology, Physics, Ecology, etc.
- Engineering - especially "green" technology
- Language Arts
- Writing, reading, and public speaking
- Exposure to green spaces
- Urban youth are bombarded with environmental hazards and many times don't have safe places to spend time outdoors
- Nature has been proven (through research) to contribute to the well-being of children
- Give children a chance for "restoration" = stress reduction
- Mindfulness activities
- Every week the children also participate in activities aimed at improving their cognition (learning), improving their attention, contributing to their physical and mental well-being through mindfulness activities
- Studies in neuroscience have shown that mindfulness physically increases a child's ability to learn, focus and regulate emotions
- Our motto is "Train our Brain!"
- The farm is an optimal location to practice "healthy habits of mind."