Prototypes Organic Garden

The project has been led by myself and two other students from my Food Politics class in collaboration with a staff person at the center. We spent several weeks weeding, lay down wood-chips and cardboard around the beds to stifle weed and grass growth, acquired and transported compost to all of the beds, installed a drip system, planted tomatoes, peas, corn, onions, beets, radishes, arugula, carrots, melons, lettuce and swiss chard. The garden provides a setting in which people of all ages and backgrounds can learn from one and other. After having participated in the garden project we anticipate that the women will have developed the skills which will allow them to maintain a greater level of food security once they leave Prototypes. Their kids will also have a good understanding of where food comes from while developing a taste for fresh fruit and vegetables. I hope all future college students involved in the project will gain as much leadership experience, gardening knowledge and wonderful connections with the women and their kids as I have (and will continue to for the next three years). It has been so rewarding to get to know different women as we kneel over the beds and weed together. My favorite part of this project has definitely been watching the kids get excited about watering, planting, finding their first worms and learning the difference between a weed and the top of a carrot. The collaboration between local college students and the Prototypes residents on the garden has the potential to empower all involved to be more independent from the industrial food system and more contentious about what we eat and the effects food has on the environment and our health. Plans for the Future: A small group of students who will be on campus over the summer will help the women who have been gardening with us to weed, harvest and plant more over summer vacation. In the fall, we plan to make the garden part of Pitzer College’s Community Engagement Center to increase college student volunteers as we expand the garden. We will also add student run cooking classes and cooking skill shares using the food we planted and the trees which already bear fruit. Every Sunday night from 5:30-7:30 college students and Prototypes mother’s and their child will all gather to weed, plant and care for the garden. We plan to add an avocado tree (because the women love avocados) and a berry patch that will produce fruit which will be easy for the kids to harvest (and eat right on the spot)! Additionally, we intend to apply for a few grants to fund the addition of drip line to the two beds that don’t have a drip system, stepping stones for the middle of the beds, tomato cages for the tomato plants and a small fence to delineate the boundaries of the beds. Next spring “The Political Economy of Food” will be taught again and students will be required to sign up for a gardening internship, one option being the Prototypes Organic Garden. As long as this class is taught and the women at the center are interested in gardening with their children, this project will remain sustainable.