- Author: Mike Hsu
After harvesting and cooking their produce, students ask for seconds of kale
How do you get notoriously finicky sixth graders to eat their leafy greens? Have them grow the vegetables themselves.
Students in Riverside have that unique opportunity through a hands-on gardening and nutrition class at Ysmael Villegas Middle School, with help from CalFresh Healthy Living, University of California Cooperative Extension Riverside County (a part of UC Agriculture and Natural Resources).
“We have middle schoolers asking for seconds and thirds of kale – that's not something that's typical!” said Claudia Carlos, program supervisor for CalFresh Healthy Living, UCCE Riverside, which implements SNAP-Ed locally (the educational arm of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps).
Growing and tending kale, mint and snap peas in two wheelbarrow gardens on the Villegas campus, the second cohort of students capped their 12-week class with a cooking lesson. A simple recipe combining their kale with tomatoes, onions and coconut milk was a big hit.
“It's one thing to tell youth they should eat healthy, but not until they actually grow the food do they actually take a lot of pride in that food they've grown and harvested,” Carlos explained.
By the end of this school year, about 75 students (in three cohorts) will have taken the class, during which they explore career pathways in gardening, agriculture and nutrition – while cultivating new skills and healthy habits such as choosing nutritious snacks and incorporating exercise into their day. Techniques developed by the UC help encourage effective behavior change.
“In this exploratory class, I've learned how to plant, and take care of plants,” wrote one student, in evaluating the class. “I can use these skills later on in life most likely, and I also learned how to be more healthy.”
Teachers observed that other students also have taken steps to apply their new skills and knowledge.
“They become more confident in themselves and their abilities to make healthy choices for themselves and their families – and to advocate for their parents to buy that kale and actually eat it,” said Daisy Valdez, community education specialist for CalFresh Healthy Living, UCCE Riverside, who is helping teach the class.
Valdez also has been training Villegas teacher Kim Weiss, so that Weiss – a first-year full-time teacher – is empowered to teach future cohorts. Both Valdez and Weiss noticed that nearly all of the youth have been enthusiastic about getting their hands in the soil, watering and weeding regularly – even taking care of the “worm hotel.”
“Students are very invested in the plants, how they are doing and their well-being,” Weiss said. “They ask if they can come back to the class and help care for the plants and worms; students worry about who will take care of the plants and worms after they leave.”
In addition to basic gardening and cooking skills, the class also incorporates lessons about herbs and spices, beneficial insects and pollinators, and cultural dimensions of food. The kale cooking lesson, which recently took place during Black History Month, presented a chance to teach about African food and culinary traditions.
“It allows them to not just connect to the garden but also to connect to their peers and to connect to the world around them,” said Valdez, who added that the garden, planted in a pair of cheerful red wheelbarrows, also beautifies the campus and sparks conversations among their schoolmates about food systems.
The Villegas partnership with CalFresh Healthy Living, UCCE Riverside also benefits the entire school in other ways, with programs reaching hundreds of students and community members. In spring 2021, under Valdez's supervision, students created a “food access board” that shows how to obtain healthy and affordable food through CalFresh EBT, farmers markets, WIC and other resources.
The board, which has been set up in the library, cafeteria and lobby, is seen and used by students and family members. Valdez also engaged parents and the broader community by hosting gardening and nutrition workshops.
This year, Villegas students will have the opportunity to further deepen their cultural connections through a new Youth Participatory Action Research project, in which they explore their personal and family histories through the lens of a meaningful and healthy food item, practice or tradition. Youth will then share their findings with school peers and administrators.
As Carlos noted, these young people will not forget such engaging and immersive experiences with food any time soon. In their evaluations, many students wrote that they learned valuable lessons about compost, care for plants and insects, and healthy eating.
And, as one sixth grader said: “I also learned that kale and coconut milk is amazing!”
- Author: Ricardo A. Vela
The CalFresh Healthy Living, UC Program, administered through UC Cooperative Extension (UCCE), works with ethnic communities to transform their environment by implementing a community garden. UCCE created three gardens in partnership with community organizations in an equal number of neighborhoods located in this populous county.
In the first one, adults and minors dug and planted seeds and various vegetable plants in a community garden located in Riverside's popular Latino neighborhood. The vegetable garden has brought people in this low-resource community together to address healthy food access and learn about healthy eating and nutrition.
Gonzalo Rodríguez, an active member of the Community Settlement Association, said, "We planted pepper plants, tomatoes and little seeds. Vegetables are an excellent food for us, and another thing that keeps children off the streets and helps them understand the process while having fun taking care of their plants."
The garden in this thriving Latino community has grown over the years and is now a place for families to get together to celebrate healthy living. Educating food-insecure families of different ethnicity, the importance of having a vegetable garden, and how to grow your own food is a goal of the CalFresh Healthy Living, UC Program, and UCCE in Riverside County.
The second garden is located on what used to be a vacant lot in the Riverside Faith Temple under Pastor Duane Sims' supervision, who spoke about his vision. "I would like to see it a complete food force, a source of food that won't cost anybody anything, and something for people that don't have anything to do, a place to put their hands in the dirt and accomplish something."
These community gardens collaborate with several programs from the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources and partner with ethnic organizations to combat the poor eating habits that result in obesity, chronic diseases, and sometimes premature death.
"We're trying to get low-income families to eat more vegetables, and the best way to do this is to encourage them to plant their own fruits and vegetables in an orchard, and that's why we're promoting community gardens," said Chutima Ganthavorn, UCCE nutrition specialist in Riverside County.
Adela Torres and her children are involved in the project with the Community Settlement Association in Riverside. "It's beneficial for the children because they are fresh fruits or things that we can have at home," she said.
Ganthavorn reaffirmed the UCCE and CalFresh Healthy Living, UC's commitment to helping ethnic communities live a healthier diet. "We know that many people's diets today are fast food and soft drinks, and they are not consuming fruits and vegetables. We need to eat almost nine portions of fruits and vegetables a day, and most of us aren't getting close to that level. We are trying to encourage the consumption of fruits and vegetables, especially vegetables because they contain many nutrients and many health benefits," she said.
- Author: Chutima Ganthavorn
- Contributor: Jackie Barahona
Science Night is an evening of hands-on science activities for students and their families to do together. Science Night is an opportunity for parents to visit their children's schools to celebrate student learning. Since the coronavirus pandemic has prevented this type of school gathering this year, some elementary schools in Coachella Valley Unified organized virtual Science Night events using the Zoom platform to keep families engaged. Being a community partner that promotes student health and wellness, the CalFresh Healthy Living, UC Cooperative Extension (CFHL, UCCE) was invited to participate. Our CFHL, UCCE Educators: Jackie Barahona, Daisy Valdez, Itzel Palacios-Sanchez and Esmeralda Nunez presented ‘Plant Anatomy' which is adapted from the Eat Your Plants lesson from the TWIGS nutrition and gardening curriculum. Students and families had fun on Zoom learning about edible plant parts and the benefits of eating vegetables and fruits. When asked what they took away from this session, one student commented in the chat "I learned that some vegetables are considered fruits" and another said "I learned more about plants and that we can eat them." The event was held on December 3, 2020, jointly for the Cesar Chavez and Valle Del Sol Elementary Schools, and on December 9, 2020 for Saul Martinez Elementary.
Our CFHL, UCCE team is thankful for the opportunity to be a partner in the virtual Science Night events and is pleased with the positive feedback from the Principal at Saul Martinez:
“I want to take a moment to thank the entire team that made our very first Saul Martinez Virtual Family Science Fair a huge success! Our Saul Martinez students and parents were engaged in critical thinking on the scientific process and I have received much positive feedback from our families! At the end of the event, one student sent me a private message in the zoom chat, “This is fun, when are we doing science night again?” That question right there equals success!! I hope we can do this again in the near future!”
- Author: Ricardo A. Vela
En los Estados Unidos muchos de nosotros hemos visto y escuchado algo sobre la celebración mexicana del Día de los Muertos, ya sea por alguna película de terror o en alguna feria comunitaria en donde los niños muestran sus rostros pintados como coloridas calaveras. Esa costumbre es la preservación, de este lado de la frontera, de esa milenaria, radiante y vibrante celebración mexicana.
El Día de los Muertos es más que una calavera colorida pintada en los rostros o un cráneo de azúcar decorado con colores brillantes y grecas atractivas. Es un día festivo para celebrar la vida y renovar el amor a los seres queridos que fallecieron. No es una tradición que tenga como objetivo asustar a alguien como Halloween o Noche de Brujas, no es aterrador en absoluto.
El Día de Muertos es una antigua fiesta prehispánica que se observa en todo México, Centroamérica y en otras partes del mundo. Significa que los mexicanos ven la muerte como una parte natural del ciclo humano, por lo que esta tradición no es un día de tristeza sino de fiesta para que sus seres queridos regresen ese día al mundo de los vivos y celebren con ellos. La celebración del Día de Muertos continua vigente por los mexicanos y otros grupos étnicos que viven en loEstados Unidos porque está arraigada en el amor y la vida.
No es inusual que encontremos altares para el Día de Muertos en escuelas y centros comunitarios. Estos altares adornados con la flor de Cempasúchil (Tagetes erecta), los brillantes y coloridos cráneos de azúcar y las elegantes catrinas junto al pan de muerto se encuentran enlazados con fotografías y artículos personales en memoria de aquellos que han fallecido.
Cada elemento tiene un simbolismo único en el elaborado altar. Se creía que los pétalos de la flor de Cempasúchil, conocidos por los antiguos mexicanos como la flor de 20 pétalos, guiaban al muerto al cielo. Las calaveras y el pan son una fusión del cristianismo y la celebración antigua original.
Cada año la “Mainstream America” parece mirar más de cerca la fiesta del Día de Muertos y crece la fascinación hacia la festividad. Algunos prestigiosos museos como el Smithsonian, el Peabody en Harvard y el museo de arte de Palm Springs entre otros, dedican un espacio importante a este arte exquisito de los altares y la decoración de calaveras, y catrinas.
Para Claudia Díaz, asesora de Desarrollo Juvenil de la División de Agricultura y Recursos Naturales de la Universidad de California, UC ANR de 4-H en los condados de Riverside y San Bernardino, el Día de los Muertos le trae recuerdos de tiempos vividos en la Ciudad de México. "Mi familia y yo tradicionalmente nos reunimos por la noche, comemos pan del Día de Muertos con chocolate y hablamos de las personas que amamos que ya no están con nosotros," recuerda Díaz.
Mientras que, para Cynthia Orozco, educadora de nutrición de UC ANR en el condado de Los Ángeles, el Día de los Muertos tiene un significado personal e íntimo. "Para mí, el Día de Los Muertos es un día festivo; voy a celebrar a mi hijo que falleció. Recuerdo muchos de los hermosos momentos que mi hijo me dejó," comentó Orozco.
Orozco y Díaz trabajan en condados con alta población de inmigrantes mexicanos y suelen incluir está celebración en su plan de trabajo como parte de la meta trazada por UC ANR de generar un impacto positivo en la vida cotidiana de los californianos.
"Como asesora de desarrollo juvenil de 4-H, tengo la suerte de poder preservar esta tradición entre los niños que tienen herencia hispana", dice Díaz. "En el verano, hacemos un programa donde hablamos del Día de los Muertos, los niños aprenden a hacer altares, y aprenden a escribir poemas especiales llamados Calaveras".
Mientras Orozco incluye en sus talleres de nutrición, opciones para preparar de manera saludable algunas de las comidas que se acostumbra poner en los altares del Día de Muertos. Ella enseña a los niños y adultos cómo los tamales, enchiladas y pozole, que son algunos de los alimentos tradicionales de esta y otras celebraciones mexicanas pueden ser económicos, sabrosos y muy saludables.
La fascinación por el Día de Muertos no es exclusiva de quienes trabajan en zonas urbanas, por ejemplo, después de un viaje a Oaxaca para observar el Día de Muertos de primera mano, Penny Pawl, Maestra del programa Jardineros Maestros de la UC ANR en el Condado de Napa, escribió sobre cómo cultivar la flor de Cempasúchil y todas sus variedades y propiedades medicinales en la Columna de Jardineros Maestros Napa.
El Día de los Muertos es una de tantas maneras en que los mexicanos muestran su pragmatismo al venerar la muerte celebrando la vida.
- Author: Wendy Powers
Admittedly, when I have thought about southern California in the past, I have imagined that once you moved east of the crowds and beaches it was a barren desert sans camels. But UC ANR personnel in Riverside and Imperial Counties have shown me that there is so much more to the far southeastern part of the state! The Coachella Valley, in particular, is just beautiful. From what seems like an enormous amount of cilantro and dill to orchards, rows of 7-acre greenhouses, and leading table grape production, the 60+ crops not to mention feedlot inventory, meat processing and hay acreage have changed my impression of those counties and opened my eyes to some of the challenges and opportunities in the region. I want to thank Jairo Diaz, Oli Bachie, Jose Aguiar, Eta Takele Carmen Gispert, Sonia Rios, and Pratap Devkota (new Advisor in Imperial County!) for helping me get up to speed as well as Vince, Scott and Jeff for letting us stop by their operations.
Clearly I'm not the only one intrigued by all of the production in the desert. While we were at the Imperial UCCE and REC facility, there was a group there as participants in the winter tour series. I learned this is part of the FARM SMART program; an initiative that spans youth development, community nutrition, gardening and agritourism. Overall, it's a fascinating program and a novel way to tie all the strengths of UCCE together while reaching a number of target audiences.
Chris Greer, Oli, Pratap, Jairo and I also spent some time with David Bradshaw from the Imperial Irrigation District to see firsthand the New River Wetlands project, designed to alleviate degradation of the Salton Sea. We stood at the edge of the Salton Sea but water levels are clearly low already and projected to go even lower in the near future.
The trip to the desert was enlightening, as much because of what was growing in the desert as because of the insights it provided about how important our partnerships across the borders (state and national) are in that region. Repeatedly I heard that clientele include growers from El Centro, Indio, Yuma and Mexicali, alike. And students from Mexico are an important part of the research underway. The strong partnerships and stakeholder support became obvious when I was able to meet so many special guests that attended lunch at the Imperial UCCE and REC facility. Guests included the local Farm Bureau, area growers, NRCS and commodity group representatives, and administrators from a university in Mexicali. A great turnout and a great meal prepared by the personnel.