Dig In
OUSD The Center Environment, Food & Garden (EFG) Programs
May 2024
In this Dig In:
- Harvest of the Month: Strawberries!
- EFG Champion Updates & Reminders
- May Garden Maintenance Notes
- OUSD Waste Prevention & Sustainability
- Highlights, Stories & Photos
- Apply ~ Participate ~ Read ~ Watch ~ Listen
📸: Hoover taste test crew
And remember... you can always check out the Dig In newsletter archive!
Celebrate strawberries as the school year comes to a close!
- Promote the strawberries being served on OUSD produce bars during lunch and in the meal program overall!
- If your site requested a May Strawberry taste test box in April via the Seed & Start form, use the lettuce in a timely manner and host a taste test! Check here for your school site's designation as an A school or B school to determine your delivery date, and reminder emails from Kat Romo.
- Set up a beautiful strawberry bulletin board in your cafeteria (required for all EFG Champion sites! Find many HOTM bulletin board examples in this photo album).
- Highlight the local farmer providing strawberries for the taste tests, JSM Organics, and farmers providing strawberries for the meal program, Bucio Farms and JAS farms - in morning announcements, on the bulletin boards, etc.!
- Educate with this slide deck about strawberries (Learn about the history of strawberries, nutrition facts, activities, recipes and farmer highlight!).
- Distribute Educator Newsletters to staff at your site (distributed at the start of the year).
- Try out an activity sheet and newsletters on the HOTM website, or try a strawberry recipe from the 2024 HOTM calendar or slide deck, and encourage staff to use the materials and share back with you!
- Don't forget to check out the "Apply ~ Participate ~ Read ~ Watch ~ Listen" section of this Dig In to find more fun resources!
Highlight: May is Rethink Your Drink Month! Integrate encouragement to drink water and choose water over sugar sweetened beverages into your HOTM bulletin board. See the "highlights" section below in this newsletter for more resources!
Lockwood CDC bulletin board for broccoli
Cool element: student art and lots of student photos!
Lockwood broccoli taste test in the garden
Lettuce time at Street Academy
Find the hub for Harvest of the Month in OUSD on The Center Programming Website and follow along on TikTok and Instagram @OUSDHOTM. Read highlights from past months here.
Harvest of the Month encourages students and school communities to eat a variety of nutritious produce, and celebrates the bounty and diversity of fruits and vegetables grown in California.
Up next for June & July: Stone Fruit!
- 🍓May 1: HOTM Bulletin Boards for May Strawberries posted.
- 👩🌾 Farmer Posters about the farm providing the strawberries for taste test boxes, JSM Organics, were delivered to all EFG Champions and to all Nutrition Services kitchen sites - due to a last minute change, the farmers providing strawberries for the meal program are Bucio Farms and JAS farms (this is an updated farmer poster for these farms)
- 🍓 Week of May 7: Snap Pea HOTM Taste Test Produce Boxes go out to “A” School Sites who ordered via Seed and Start.
- 📃 May 9: SLAQ Wellness Inventory Due
- 🌱 May 9-14: Order window for last Seed & Start order of the school year.
- 🍓 Week of May 14: Snap Pea HOTM Taste Test Produce Boxes go out to “B” School Sites who ordered via Seed and Start.
- 💻 May 17: EFG Champion Bi-Monthly Log for April & May is due for all EFG Champions (including FoodCorps service members).
- ⏰ May 17: Review the Program Overview for the 2024-2025 EFG Champion Program and Apply! Participation does not role over automatically between years.
- All month: Plan for your summer garden! Prevent hazards and keep your garden viable for next school year. See Chapter 5 of the School Garden Toolkit, with reference to the Preparing for Summer Checklist for guidance on preparing your school garden for summer.
Ongoing:
- Share photos via the EFG Champion photo album.
- Work towards EFG Champion SMARTE goals!
Note on stipends: Champion stipends expected to be paid by end of June for champions who submit April/May log by May 17.
May 9, EFG Champion Share Out + Celebration (in person)
OUSD EFG Champions: RSVP as soon as possible! We have 43 responses so far!
- 4:00 - 4:30 pm: SGS Orientation for schools participating in that summer program
- 4:30 - 5:30 pm: PAID* End of Year Teacher Sharing and Learning (*paid for EFG Champions)
- 5:30 - 6:00 pm: Garden Potluck and Wood-Fired Pizza Dinner.
More details in the RSVP link.
See Friday Reminder emails from Kat.Romo@ousd.org for more reminders.
The EFG Champion website is the hub for key information from workshops, resources including the OUSD Garden Toolkit, which has links to all relevant forms embedded throughout and in the appendix, page 61, and EFG Champion Calendar 2023-2024: Workshops, Key Dates.
May in our School Gardens
Summer Garden Planning!
It’s time to decide about what will happen in your garden over the summer. If your school campus will be closed for the summer, you have a few options for your garden space: 1) get a family, or families, to sign up to care for the garden over the summer, with the incentive of getting the summer produce; OR 2) Plant a cover crop in May so that it is established before your turn off the water in June (this means losing a few weeks of garden time with students), OR 3) Turning under your annual plants and adding a 6 inch layer of mulch to all your beds--they will be ready to plant as soon as school starts in August. If you are at a year round school, you can continue with the above warm season planting tips. See Chapter 5 of the School Garden Toolkit, with reference to the Preparing for Summer Checklist for guidance on preparing your school garden for summer.
Garden Maintenance
Amend the soil and compost spent plants as the cooler season spring plants die off. If the garden won’t be maintained over the summer, continue to keep up with weeds, water soil, and mulch (if available) before leaving.
Planting Guide
If the garden will be watered and weeded over the summer, continue to plant warm season crops: Eggplants, tomatoes, peppers, melons. Choose long-season varieties (90-100 days) in order to harvest in the first weeks returning to school. Help students thin plantings of carrots and beets.
If no one will be tending the garden regularly over the summer, plant some low-water crops as placeholders over the summer to keep the soil aerated and full of nutrients.
- Seeds: Beans, corn, cucumber, melon, and squash.
- Plants/Starts: If summer watering available: Eggplants, tomatoes, peppers, melons.
Pest and Disease Alert
If new seedlings are showing signs of insect damage, you may want to protect them with a protective cloth until they are large enough to better tolerate damage. Watch for striped and spotted cucumber beetles and continued vigilance for slug damage.
Check out the OUSD Planting Calendar for recommendations for the whole year.
EFG Champions & site Corps members can request seasonally appropriate seeds and plant starts via the OUSD Seed & Start Program.
Crunching carrots at Montclair
Garden clean up crew at Joaquin Miller
Learning in the Grass Valley garden
Read more on the Master Gardeners of Alameda County website and learn about the whole year here and in the OUSD School Garden Toolkit on The Center Programming Website.
OUSD Earth Month Art Contest Concludes
Thank you to all students who submitted artwork for the Earth Month Art Contest: Fighting Food Waste. We are excited to go through the 120 submissions and work with our judging panel to select the winners. Check here next month for the link to the student gallery and prize winners!
”3-4 out of 10 food items are thrown away. That's too much!!!” Alina Wilson, 1st Grade, Peralta Elementary
”We learned that food materials that we cannot eat should be composted instead of being thrown away in the landfill. That way, the materials can be turned into plant food.” Dylan Stewart, Romi Han, 4th Grade, Crocker Highlands Elementary
“Save Food, Save World!” Rojbin Bara, 6th Grade, Edna Brewer Middle School
Fact / Action
Fact: OUSD has single stream recycling which means paper, rigid plastic, metal and glass are accepted in one bin. These materials are separated at a Material Recovery Facility (MRF) by both people and machines. When flimsy plastic goes into the recycle bin it can tangle up the machinery and cause the whole line to shut down.
Action: Keep flimsy plastics like plastic bags, snack wrappers, and laminated items out of the recycle bin. These items belong in the trash bin unless you are using another processor for special items like these.
Castlemont High School SUDA Waste Audit
We want to shout out Castlemont High School’s Sustainable Urban Design Academy (SUDA) program. Students visited the Davis Street Transfer Station and saw the pit where much of the trash from surrounding areas gets dumped and loaded into large trucks called possum bellies that then take the trash to the landfill just outside of Livermore. Students later conducted a waste audit on campus sorting out recycle, compost, and uneaten food from landfill bins. This eye opening activity highlighted just how much edible food can go to waste and how much of our waste can be repurposed.
Promote Waste Prevention for the End of the School Year
- Reduce waste by reminding students to hold onto usable school supplies for next year instead of planning to buy something new next year!
- For tips on how to repair items instead of tossing them, click here!
- Choose reusable plates and cups whenever possible for any end of the school year parties. Kits can be sent home to be washed by parent volunteers. Find more information on reusable party kits here!
- And check out the curriculum from Culture of Repair.
- Check out OUSD's step by step guide on handling unwanted items! We are here to assist on this, just let us know!
Keep in mind: summer is a great time to have bins and signage updated! Contact us for assistance, Nancy.Deming@ousd.org.
Direct School Support: Our District Waste Reduction Team is here to support you!
Schedule a site visit or walkthrough and we can order supplies and help you create a plan. We can also give virtual or in person assemblies and presentations to teach students and staff about why and how to sort waste! We are here to be of service, just let us know how we can support! Contact us directly at Nancy Deming (nancy.deming@ousd.org)
🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱 Keep reading for more great resources 💡🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱
Including great stories from across OUSD, grants, events, articles, and more. You will see our contact information at the end of this newsletter! We recommend clicking "View it in your browser" at the top of this email, if you're reading this in email.
Encourage choosing water this Rethink Your Drink Month!
May is Rethink Your Drink Month! This is a time to celebrate drinking water and encourage our communities to reduce their sugary drink consumption.
Here are ways to spread the word and learn. (loosely organized from easiest to slightly more involved engagement). Even if you just pick one action to do, that is a success worth celebrating!!!! A few examples include...
- Remind people to drink water during school announcements and assemblies! Maybe set a challenge for the day or week! Remind people that choosing water over sugary drinks is the way to go.
- Put up posters, student art, etc. in hallways, on your site's HOTM bulletin board, etc. that celebrates drinking water, why water is important, etc.
- Continue the conversation from Earth Day about why water is important for life!
- Bring up drinking water when doing lessons about plants, animals, people, health, and more!
- Encourage staff to be role models and highlight when they remember to drink water with their students!
- ...and more!
Find materials, activities, videos, book ideas, and many other resources in the OUSD Water Promotion Toolkit!!!
Follow along with these hashtags: #acnswater #CalFreshHealthyLiving #healthylivingforlife #ousdhotm
February + March 2024 EFG Highlights
Read highlights about what our EFG Champions were up to in February + March! Drawn from EFG Champion monthly logs.
Find the archive of monthly highlights here.
One story: ”It has been fun to help some new teachers to the school to support them in getting their students out there. Those who were with me in kindergarten or in ASP knew what to do already and were able to guide/assist their teacher in pulling up the plants by the roots and tilling the soil.” East Oakland Pride
ACORN Woodland is full of sprouting seeds!
EFG site highlight: ACORN Woodland’s EFG Champion, Briana Hernandez, has started a seed program with the classes in her school. Teachers can select seeds from the Seed and Start order form, and then germinate them in the classroom. The students watch the seeds grow into sprouts and can eventually plant the sprouts in the school’s garden. Teachers across all grade levels participate in the seed program and it’s a great way to get more students into the garden.
Want to share about your site's activities with other champions? Reach out to Kat (kat.romo@ousd.org) about sharing during the learning portion of our May 9 professional development event!
April Field Trips at The Center
This April has been a lovely one for our Field Trip Program. We hosted 9 wonderful classes this month, coming from Oakland Tech, Bridges, Hoover, Global Family, Prescott, Highland Community, Elmhurst Middle, TCN, and Lincoln. Students tried many activities for the first time, from flipping garden beds, to making pesto, to bravely sticking their hands into the worm hotel. Students have also been snacking on plenty of garden-fresh snap peas in honor of our Harvest of the Month, as well. Reviews are in, students say: “The peas are so sweet!” “Snap peas taste like cashews! They have a bit of a nutty aftertaste” “I rate these peas 10/10”. As our summer harvest grows, we are excited to host our summer school field trips and continue to have joyful days together!
- School Lunch Hero Day! May 3 (but you can celebrate all month!)
- "The Bridges Yuri Built: How Yuri Kochiyama Marched Across Movements." book reading and discussion, May 4, Bandung Books + East Side Arts Alliance
- World Migratory Bird Day, May 11, United Nations
- Kids to Parks Day, May 18, National Park Trust
- World Bee Day, May 20, United Nations
- Action for Happiness Happier May calendar, Greater Good Science Center
- Happiness calendar for educators - May 2024, Greater Good Science Center
- Pollinator Week, June 17 - 21, Pollinator Partnership
- Learn more about the Climate Mental Health Network, ongoing, Climate Mental Health Network
READ
- Strawberry Slide Deck and Newsletters, OUSD HOTM
- 4 Ways to Practice Self-Care in Nature, Children & Nature Network
- Nature Can Improve Health & Wellbeing, Children & Nature Network
- 20 Books Redefining Our Relationship with Food and the Planet this Spring, Food Tank
- Healthier Foods, Healthier Minds, USDA
- More about Strawberries
- The Gift of Strawberries, Excerpt from “Braiding Sweetgrass” by Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Strawberry Farmworkers Fight for a Living Wage, Civil Eats
- Pesticides on produce: Some factors to consider when choosing your fruits and veggies, NPR
- California’s strawberry industry is hooked on dangerous pesticides, Reveal News
- The Story of the Strawberry, History Workshop
WATCH
- Read Aloud: The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear, by Don and Audrey Wood, Illustrated by Don Wood, The Joyful Bookshelf
- Read Aloud: How Does Our Food Grow, by Brooke Jorden, illustrated by Kaye Widdowson, Storytime with Mr. Limata
LISTEN
- Strawberry Fields Forever (song / music video), La Santa Cecelia
COOK
- Strawberry recipe archive, CalFresh Healthy Living
- Strawberry Pizza, 2024 HOTM Calendar
- Seedball Grant, Planet Bee
- 2024 California PBIS Recognition Applications are due May 10, California PBIS
- Therapeutic Garden Grant, due July 1, National Garden Bureau
- Kars4Kids Small Grant Program, Rolling Applications, Kars4Kids
- OUSD Staff: Request an ergonomics evaluation here
The Dig In newsletter is a monthly newsletter with resources & reminders, stories & celebrations.
Let us know if there is content you want to see in this newsletter!
You are receiving this as a valued partner of this programming. Please reach out to Lydia.Yamaguchi@ousd.org or Kat.Romo@ousd.org with any questions.
The Center Education Programming - Environment, Food, Gardens
Website: The Center Education and Community Programming Website
OUSD Health & Wellness YouTube Channel
Follow HOTM on Instagram & TikTok: @OUSDHOTM and #OUSDHOTM
Email: Kat.Romo@ousd.org
Location: 2850 West Street, Oakland, CA, USA
Phone: 510-872-2401
What is The Center?
According to one 6th grade OUSD student: "The Center is fun and informational and there is a lot of nature a lot of agriculture, history. They prepare and make food for OUSD food."