fbpx

Edible Classroom—Giving Kids a New Future

Date
May, 18, 2015

By Fredrica Syren:

I don’t know about you, but in my experience, classrooms in general are never great looking and tend to be boring. But imagine a classroom filled with edible plants. Now that’s a classroom I would look forward to going to every day. Teacher Stephen Ritz has made that a reality at Discovery High School in New York’s deprived South Bronx. He established a project of growing plants and vegetables in the school. Ritz’s venture now has become the Green Bronx Machine that now helps other schools in the U.S. create their own agriculture program in an effort to teach children about healthy eating and environmental awareness.

green-bronx-orgThe project began when, in an effort to beautify their neighborhood and bring communities together, the school created landscape gardens in abandoned lots. They then began beautifying the their school by planting and growing food indoors and in vertical planters all around the school.

The kids have really responded to the program. Before, this school had a very low graduation rate; now attendance has increased from 43% to 93%. The kids really feel love by caring for the plants, and feel responsible for them. As a result, their view of where food comes from has changed, which is a very good thing since the majority of kids in this district have horrible diets.

Ritz, who began this journey by funding everything out of his own pocket, is determined to put plants in every classroom in New York City. He is a true believer that, if we teach children about nature, they will learn to nurture.

Fredrika Syren

Fredrika Syren is an environmental activist and writer. In 2016, she founded the website Green-Mom.com where she shared her family’s journey of living zero waste. She lives in San Diego, California with her husband James and their children Bella, Noah, and Liam. Fredrika and her family were recently featured in the documentary Zero Time to Waste. Fredrika is also the author of Zero Waste for Families - A Practical Guidebook (which you can buy on this site)

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Related Posts

Press Kit
Book
Book - Zero Waste for Families
Watch for Free in Oct
Zero Time To Waste Film Poster

Get weekly UPdateS

Let’s stay in touch so we can take this journey together!