“It’s about empowering students by giving them a seed to grow”
Paul Hudak is the co-founder of Growing Together Education, an organisation that works with kids in schools throughout the US and Canada, teaching the importance of the environment, with the field-to-fork ethos. We caught up with him at Bellflower Unified Schools in LA, a network of schools across the city…
Can you tell us a bit more about what you do in schools?
We run a course called Urban Farm Sciences, which is all about envisioning what farming looks like in the setting where there's no green space. We teach farming and nutrition in schools. It’s really about empowering students by giving them a seed to grow – we can teach so much through that. We’ve lost this connection between food and where it comes from. Younger generations are buying food in the supermarket, where you’re not seeing where it’s coming from, and it’s so important to bring that back.
You’ve worked at Bellflower for a while now, it’s quite a special relationship…
Yes, Bellflower is a very forward-thinking school network, bringing together this connection between environmental work, public health and student health and mental health. When we had the opportunity to start working with them, they were very aligned with what our mission is. We’re super committed to focusing on communities and schools that are facing food insecurity and challenges, and really figuring out ways to prioritize student health, from wellbeing through to nutrition, through working outdoors and students working on environmental projects. Every week, we’re harvesting 500 heads of lettuce, then processing it and sharing it with schools across the districts.
What kinds of things do you grow?
On this campus here, we focus on the Freight Cube – a container that has four walls of hydroponics, which, in our hyperurban environment, is a great growing solution. This way we can grow plants without soil, just nutrient-rich water. There’s a tank of water at the top of the channels, which drips down and is collected in the one at the bottom, which then gets sent back up to the top, so it’s recycled. It’s very water efficient. Then LED lights provide a full spectrum of growing light. So we can create an environment that’s good for growing green veggies, like salad greens.
On other school campuses, we have a rooftop farm where there’s a greenhouse and gardens – it gets very hot up there, so we’re able to grow things that need hotter, longer seasons, like tomatoes and cucumbers. We often grow the same varieties in the different environments, then compare how the plants in the high-tech Freight Cube fare against the low-tech roof-top garden – so the students are really experiencing all aspects of it and understanding what’s possible. It helps students feel empowered to make a change in not only their own lives and their diets, but in their community, too.
We focus on the heirloom fruit and veg varieties (their culture and history), from the places we’re teaching in – I always say the plants have a story to tell. It’s helping students understand that everything they’re eating has a story. Food is so much more than ingredients on a plate. It’s cultural history. These dishes mean something to people, what it means to the land that you’re standing on.
What an incredible message to champion!
Yes, I believe we humans have a moral obligation to keep these heirloom varieties alive, especially in areas of food insecurity. And they can also teach us so much. In supermarkets, people are used to seeing fruit and veg being a certain size, shape and colour – especially tomatoes – so when students see these beautifully different varieties, they’re like, wow! But to make them all uniform in shape and colour, they’ve lost lots of flavour too – I wonder whether that hasn’t helped with kids or younger generations connecting with food. We also look at nutrient density, so while the shelf-stable tomatoes are pretty, we’ll do a nutrient-density comparison and discover that heirloom types have more. It’s all about teaching the importance of healthy eating and nurturing classic varieties.
How has working with 10 Skills helped you?
I use 10 Skills as part of my Urban Farm Sciences course, and I share it with Melissa, who teaches counseling and mental health services. We’ll look at the recipes we’re going to cook up during the program, then I’ll plan what to grow from there. We thought 10 Skills was just a great way to get our students to understand food, and the nutrition piece has always been important to me. These are skills and knowledge that’s going to impact them for the rest of their lives. I'm so proud of what we’re doing, and I have such admiration and adoration for the school district and the students that we serve.
How have the kids reacted to it? Do they just love the whole process from growing the seed to harvesting to then cooking it?
They are so engaged. I think they just love getting out of a normal classroom and having the opportunity to do some cooking. The more they do with their hands, the more engaged and interested they are. One of my fundamental beliefs with all of this is that you get a student to grow a seed and care for it, they’re invested in that plant and they’re exponentially more open to trying it and maybe even enjoying it. So you’re actually seeing kids who might never have tried this food before actually giving it a go.
We also have an opportunity at Bellflower to engage with families. We’ll send produce out to them all the time, and the feedback that we’re getting from parents and grandparents is incredible. One example is a grandmother who grew up in the southeastern United States and ate lots of okra, which is really hard to come by here in LA. So we grew some for her, and she was so grateful. It’s only when you start talking to people that you realize quite how important this kind of project is. Not just for the kids, but for the whole community. You show them that even if you only have a window or a porch, you can grow a few pots of plants. We’ve had some students who’ve gone home and done this – that’s the ultimate, right? When a student takes what they’re learning at school home – job done. And when you’re growing things, you’ll be using English, you’ll be finding out about science, about geography. It’s so holistic.
Does this kind of course actually encourage kids to take this up in the future?
The students at Bellflower are taking this course with kids from surrounding school districts, so for me that’s exciting because they’re getting to realize that the community is bigger than just their neighborhood. They all come in with different levels of interest and engagement – some want to go on to pursue farming or food, while others just like to learn more about their culture.
You must be inspiring so many kids… What is your next plan?
We’re trying to figure out how to bring it on the road, so going out to elementary schools, or bringing them in here for tours to get them excited about what’s to come.
You must have some great stories of kids who’ve been inspired by the course…
There is one student at Bellflower, who loves the Freight Cube Farm, and has been taking plants home, which has really inspired her grandmother – and now we’ll share recipes and share plants, so she’s been getting involved. We end up touching the lives of so many people by doing this stuff.
You’ve been doing this a while now, haven’t you? What impact have you seen?
A few years ago we converted an old baseball field in Oregon into a student-run farm, and it was so successful – we were selling produce to 31 schools in the district, selling into restaurants in Portland. Now the students from that are in their early 30s, and it's pretty incredible to see the impact of the program. Some work in agriculture, some are in nursing, some out fighting forest fires – but all having a connection in nature, having a connection to diet. So it’s nice to have that immediate feedback. And hearing about what sticks. And I think that’s really what this is all about, having tremendous social impact and planting the seeds, which they’ll take forward with them. Learning this stuff from a young age does help you to live a happier, healthier life.
Us adults, we kind of we’re so set in our ways, but kids you can really inspire. I feel like they’re just such sponges and they’re open to kind of trying new things and experimenting, and I think that’s what’s so exciting about working with schools. They are quick to inspire me too. The projects that students have come up with over the years have just been mind-blowing. I just think, not to be corny, but kids are the next generation, so they’ve got a lot hanging on them as well.
What would you say to encourage other schools to try 10 Skills?
That you don’t need a culinary arts course to do it – if you do, that’s lovely and there’s certain things that can be done in that space, but it’s not necessary to get this off the ground. You don’t need to have a state-of-the-art facility, just the determination and the interest in doing this. And what the kids will get from it too – being able to teach kids the importance of food and where it comes from and what it does to your body is invaluable. Like the best food, it’s not complicated, it’s just simple stuff done with passion and love.
