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UNI brings a unique slant to the school garden with an emphasis on nutrition education, sustainable organic agriculture, youth entrepreneurship and neighborhood beautification. School gardens form the base of UNI's peer-education program.
 
School Gardens

School gardens have a respected educational history and operate successfully around the world. UNI brings a unique slant to the school garden with an emphasis on nutrition education, sustainable organic agriculture, youth entrepreneurship and neighborhood beautification. School gardens offer opportunities for children to become engaged in positive ways to beautify their school and improve the quality of life in the community. School gardens form the base of UNI's peer-education program. Students of all levels can benefit from their experiences in the garden. There's always something new to learn!

• UCHS Garden
    The University City High School garden was started in 2000 as part of a partnership between UNI and UCHS. Since the beginning, UNI has strove to make the garden an outdoor classroom. Classes from Drew Elementary School and UCHS use the garden to learn math, science, social studies, language arts, and art. UNI can integrate these subjects together through the garden to produce a learning experience that is at once diversified, fun, and educational. A group of UCHS students use the garden as the center of their afterschool job-training program. The garden serves as a classroom and also as a production center to them, as they grow crops to sell at a weekly Farmers' Market.

    For more information on the garden, contact Johanna Rosen at johannarosen at comcast.net.
• UCHS Greenhouse
    The UCHS greenhouse was started in 1999, reviving the greenhouse that had been built with the school and sat unused for over twenty years. Both UNI's in-class and afterschool programs use the greenhouse as an educational tool. Here students an study plants in detail, doing experiments in their science classes to learn how plants work, and learning more advanced agricultural techniques, such as winter growing and hydroponics in the greenhouse.

    In 2003, UNI expanded the greenhouse to twice its original size with the construction of a rooftop deck. This rooftop deck will enable UNI to double its greenhouse growing space and allow for new educational opportunities. Shaw Garden In the Fall of 2003 UNI began work with the Health and Nutrition SLC at Shaw Middle School. Under the direction of an energetic new principal, Mr. Sharif El-Mekki, the Shaw project has had a promising beginning. 5th Grade students are running their own Fruit Stand twice a week and learning about math, advertising, and nutrition through weekly lessons connected to the small business. Shaw students in the 6th Grade are spending their time outside with the hopes of turning a small planting area into a lively production and experimental garden. Already this year students produced tomatoes, peppers, string beans, collard greens, and pumpkins that were donated to the cafeteria. Students in the afterschool program worked with UNI interns to prepare healthy meals as part of the Peer Nutrition Education project. Future initiatives at Shaw include bringing more local vegetables into the lunchroom and working on a journalism project with other SLCs on urban agriculture.

    For more information contact Ryan Kuck at sir_papalo at yahoo.com.
• Cheyney University
    "When I first started working at Cheyney farm, I said to myself 'What the hell am I doing out here.' I had no idea what the hell I was doing. I had to remind myself that this was the first time I had ever been to a farm. In my mind I imagined Cheyney farm with cows, chicken, etc. similar to how farms are shown on television. My surroundings were very different from what I was used to seeing. I'm used to seeing big buildings, cars, people, and stores and young people on the corners. Many young people in West Philly are eating at fast food restraints. There are many places we purchase fast foods, such as McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy's and Chinese stores. Many of the people I was working with were very different from the people I was used to, such as the fact that they would fearlessly walk through the dirt without shoes and try different types of vegetables and fruits that I never heard of. While getting to know the people I was with, they would ask me if I wanted to try the vegetables of the soil and I would say no. The hot days working at Cheyney were overwhelming. There were many days when I wanted to quit because it was too hot. We started off with five or more people helping us with the farm, most of them were volunteers. All the volunteers vanished on us. Many of the volunteers had a lack of commitment or found another job. For a while it was just the two of us working for a long time doing the hard labor work; work at the time had been hard for us. Many days I hated to take that long ride to the farm and work in the hot weather conditions.Toya has defeated the hot days working at Cheyney farm. Now it's a minimum of five people working. They are Justin, Shevaun, myself, Velma and Shaquana. Promise was one of our Cheyney Farm workers for a long period of time but Promise slowly vanished to start her new job in Vermont. Pete is a farmer and has his own farm and store. Pete is someone who helped us start the growth of the vegetables and fruit. He helped us to plow the land and get tools so that we could accomplish what we did. Most importantly, Pete donated the Cheney farmland. Many days after a long day of work we would go buy some of his produce to eat for lunch. Our favorite things to purchase were honey wheat bread, eggplant dip, fresh red grapes (for Shaquana), bottled water, watermelon, corn, lettuces and many different types of fruits. Overall Cheyney farm still needs improvement, such as longer workdays and more people to lend a helping hand. However, we the farmers came a long way. As time has progressed on Cheyney farm we have grown tomatoes, onions, carrots, peas, sunflowers, squash, beets, kale, chard, cantaloupe and peppers. Cheyney farm had many successful crops; they were tomatoes, peppers, nasturtium, carrots, onions (red and white) and mustard greens. The taste of some of the vegetables I have eaten was not so tasty I won't bother eating them any more. Many things grew didn't get harvested because either the heat or rain demolished them or an animal had eaten them. Working at Cheyney farm I faced many obstacles, such as working in the hot heat sweating, fatigue, dizziness and working at a slow pace. Our most important plan for the future is to use black plastic and mulch for each crop. Black plastic and the mulch will allow the soil to stay moist. We also had problems with animals such as deer and would like to build a nice wooden fence (possibly with the assistance of Travis) in order to safely enclose our beds. These long-term plans are very important so that we can have more successful vegetables and fruit. UNI staff that I have worked with are funny, amusing, attentive, friendly, sociable, outgoing, respectful, welcoming, entertaining, open-minded and spearheaded."

    LaToya Hackney


    "My name is Velma Loadholt and I am a junior at Cheyney University. I have had the pleasure of being a member and an employee of the Urban Nutrition Initiative (UNI) throughout this past summer. Since I have been here I have learned so much. I believe I have learned tons of things that I think I would have never have occurred to me if I hadn’t had the opportunity to work here. I have learned the basic art of farming and have a more profound respect for farmers and people who believe in nutrition and incorporate healthy eating in their lives. I now understand that it is not only an art, but also a way of life. When I first arrived on the farm I was totally stunned and I felt completely out of place. The city in my eyes was what most people my age see as normal, such as: polluted air, trashy grounds, corner stores on every block covered by houses and things that we see which shouldn’t be there such as people on the corner selling drugs. Arriving at the farm was all too new and different. The farm was nothing like where I grew up in (North Philly), or any other part of the city that I have seen At first glance the farm looked like something that I would naturally see in the movies. As soon as we began working I noticed that the farm was really hard work. From weeding to planting, the work just never ended. There was always an occasional taste test. Now where I come from asking someone to do a taste test was sim ply asking someone to be your guinea pig. At first I was a little skeptical, but the food was actually good like the carrots, which I have always loved. Now I look at the farm and I see rows and rows of healthy food that I can tell my family all about. While working on the Cheyney Farm with a group of people which I like to collectively call a team, I have learned how to plant different varieties of food such corn celery, onions, tomatoes, kale, collards, mustard greens, broccoli, carrots, basil sage, etc. I have learned to properly care for the things that I have planted. I have noticed the different things that are good for me and bad. I now understand that different foods do grow better in different seasons. Working with Justin Moynihan, Promise Partner, Shaquana Washington, Shevaun Mizrahi, and La’Toya Hackney, I have seen a true bond amongst the Cheyney Farm workers, but that also goes for the entire UNI team. I have found a friendship in everyone that I have come across. Being apart of UNI has definitely changed my life for the better. I plan to always remain loyal to UNI. I would always have a connection with the UNI vision. I hope that every farm and project is seen all the way through. I hope that the message of healthy farming and eating makes a huge impact because the change has already begun."

    Velma Loadholt

    For more information contact Justin Moynihan at jpooboy at yahoo.com.

 
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© 2005 by the Urban Nutrition Initiative. University of Pennsylvania - Franklin Building Annex 3451 Walnut Street, P-117.
Philadelphia PA 19104 Phone: (215) 898-1600 - Fax: (215) 573 - 1134