Eighth International Conference on Food Studies

Abstract

Love Cultivating Schoolyards (LCS) is a youth internship program based in 7 schools in East Oakland. LCS seeks to empower youth as agents of change for themselves and their communities utilizing school gardens as the medium. LCS offers 30 high school students paid internships to learn about, develop and maintain gardens at Oakland schools. These students in turn teach the skills that they have learned to elementary and middle school students through after school programming. As part of LCS’ intergenerational learning approach, high school interns are guided through various activities ranging from garden bed prep, seed propagation, weeding, pruning, mulching, transplanting, harvesting, fertilizing, food preparation, curriculum development, and lesson planning. These interns apply the skills that they have gained directly through work in the gardens as well as through guiding groups of younger students through various relevant garden activities. Aside from teaching and learning from each other, LCS students and interns also experience greater connection to nature through working in gardens and demonstrate stronger understanding of natural systems, life cycles, earth cycles and ecological and nutritional concepts.