Richmond High School

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Richmond High School

• Urban Agriculture and Food Systems Class
• Supported Through Urban Tilth

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Who Are We?

• The Urban Ag class is an elective course of 20
  students that meet twice a week Mondays and
  Thursdays from 315 to 515 as a pilot program
• We plant, grow, and harvest our own vegetables in
  our community garden at RHS and at Adams middle
  school
• We Distribute CSA boxes of produce to families in
  our community.

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How did we get started?

• The Youth Mentors and Educators (YME) Club on
  Campus and many students revitalized an abandoned
  garden space on campus as part of their service
  learning.
• The first year was a lot of infrastructure
  building, some planting and amazement about what
  grew out of the ground!

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Before and After

• Before

After
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Creation of the Class!

• The brain-child of Mr. Kurtz-Nicholl and Park
  Guthrie of Urban Tilth.
• The class is based on a model of a class that
  Urban Tilth developed back in 2004
• A Stewardship Council grant co-written by 2
  Richmond High Students actually helps pay for the
  pilot of this class

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What Is Our Mission?

• To provide fresh vegetables to the families in
  our community.
• To provide knowledge to students and families
  about the benefits of consuming produce.
• To incorporate more community gardens around
  Richmond/ San Pablo schools dedicated to the
  distribution of produce.
• For students to discuss and learn about the
  American food system and its effects on our
  Richmond community.

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What is the model for the Urban Agriculture and
Food Systems Class?

• Our class is composed of four groups individually
  chosen by the students.
• Group 1 Nursery and propagation.
• Group 2 Documentation group.
• Group 3 Community Food System Group
• Group 4 CSA Marketing group.

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Nursery and propagation

• Plants and makes sure all of our vegetables are
  in good condition.
• Helps put together the weekly CSA
• Works in other local community gardens.
• Helps make garden look beautiful, starts
  vegetables from seeds.

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Documentation group

• Posts bi-weekly video blog to You tube on the
  status of the accomplishments of the Urban
  Agriculture class.
• Is in charge of planning and compiling this
  presentation for the city council.

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Marketing group

• Creates bi-weekly newsletter that accompanies the
  families CSA box.
• Acts as a liaison between parents and the Urban
  Agriculture class, greeting the parents and
  collecting the subscription fee.
• In charge of measuring the success of the CSA
  through family surveys.

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Community food system

• Surveys Richmond High students on their opinions
  about food and their eating habits.
• Students are using the RFEI index to measure the
  status of Richmonds food system.

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CSA Accomplishments

• Week 1 70 Pounds
• Week 2 82 Pounds
• Week 3 102 Pounds
• Week 4 122 Pounds
• Week 5 - 104 Pounds
• Week 6 - 127 Pounds
• Total Yield - 607 Pounds of Fresh Produce for
  Richmond High Families
• 70 Families Participating

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Yield Per Area

• Between February and April, we harvested
  approximately 220 pounds of produce from 1,200
  square feet of garden beds at Adams and 1,000
  square feet of raised-beds at RHS.
• 0.1 pounds per square foot of garden bed space
  for 3 months.
• If we keep producing at this rate, well produce
  0.4 pounds of produce per square foot of garden
  bed space per year.
• BUT...we should beat this next year because...(1)
  zucchini season is about to begin (get more
  production during the summer) and (2) we will
  fine-tune our growing systems and improve our
  soil each year
• 1/2 acre has about 10,000 square feet of garden
  beds space and could yield up to 10,000 pounds of
  fresh produce per year.

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Gleaning

• More than 8 volunteers have given us more than
  200 pounds of gleaned fruit to include in the CSA
  boxes.
• There are probably hundreds or thousands of
  backyard fruit trees in Richmond that go
  under-utilized.
• The Richmond High CSA provides a way to capture
  these resources, while improving food security

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RFEI Data / Student Surveys

• RFEI Data
• Working within a one-mile radius of Richmond
  High, this area had an RFEI score of about three.
• Meaning For every one healthy food vendor, there
  were 3 unhealthy food vendors.

• Student Survey Data
• Richmond High Students eat Fast Food an average
  of 7 times a month. Which is 84 Times a year
• RHS Students drink an average of 1.5 sodas a day
• On a scale of 1-10 (1 being disagree and 10 being
  agree) Students gave a score of 6.9 when asked
  whether they know friends or family with a
  diet-related disease

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Why is Urban Agriculture part of the solution?

• Urban Agriculture is providing foods to families
  that doesnt need to be brought in from far
  places.
• Urban agriculture is providing families with
  fresh produce to create a better healthy living.
• Urban agriculture can keep more income and jobs
  in our community which cycles around and builds
  the wealth of our community.
• Urban Agriculture can involve high school
  students learning a deep connection to the land
  and how local markets work.

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What can the City Council do to help this
movement?

• Encourage to establish more community gardens
  around Richmond/San Pablo schools through funding
  of Urban Agriculture classes and garden projects
  like HEAL, The Lincoln School Garden, the RHS
  Community Garden and many others.
• More specifically, we need the city council to
  help fund this program! RHS is covering the cost
  of an instructor for the Urban Ag and Food
  Systems Class, but as we seek to expand, we need
  funding for additional costs of expansion, and
  maintaining the program over the summer.

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Thank You!

• We hope to be invited back to relay our progress
  in the future.
• Dont forget, teens are an important part of
  building our community and we are looking towards
  our future, and it starts with healthy food.