Dig In
OUSD The Center Environment, Food & Garden (EFG) Programs
June & July 2024
In this Dig In:
- Celebrating the Year: Thank You!
- Harvest of the Month: Stone Fruit! Try Pluots!!
- Summer Highlights
- (Brief) EFG Champion Updates & Reminders
- June & July Garden Maintenance Notes
- OUSD Waste Prevention & Sustainability
- Highlights, Stories & Photos
- Apply ~ Participate ~ Read ~ Watch ~ Listen
- Apply for next year's Champion program
📸: Montclair chamomile harvest
And remember... you can always check out the Dig In newsletter archive!
We are celebrating each and everyone one of you for completing this school year!!! CONGRATULATIONS for making it to the end of the year with grace! THANK YOU for all you have done to support the wellbeing and learning for students, staff, and community!
OUSD environment, food, and garden programs expanded and evolved this year, and we are grateful for how each of you showed up to support students, tend gardens, pull the weeds, lead the taste tests, fill out the forms, pick up materials, invite in parents, and spread the vision of EFG in our schools. Thank you, and we wish you rejuvenation and abundance this summer.
Celebrate stone fruit this summer! While activities look different over the summer, we encourage you to continue to celebrate Harvest of the Month, especially if you are at a summer learning hub site!
Sites with stone fruit in their gardens have an especially great opportunity to make that connection with summer HOTM!
- Promote the stone fruit being served as part of the summer school meal program!
- Educate with this Stone Fruit slide deck and try out an activity sheet and newsletters on the HOTM website, and encourage others 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!
Important Note about HOTM Materials!
For all sites that received Harvest of the Month materials (posters, banners, stickers, fliers, t-shirts, etc.): Save and store your materials! The HOTM cycle for the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 are the same as 2023-2024, so please safely store all materials in a safe, dry place to be reused in future school years! Also make sure others know where the materials are, in case you are not returning, or just as a back up!
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 August: Back to school + Peaches!
SUMMER 2023: Growing and Learning
Gardens keep growing, summer programs are starting up, and environment, food, and garden programming continues this summer!
- SUMMER GARDEN STEWARDS are stewarding school gardens at 33 school sites this summer, to tend to the gardens, harvest summer bounty, share the bounty with their school communities, encourage students to learn in the garden during summer programming, and ensure the gardens are ready for a return to learning at the start of next school year!
- SUMMER INTERNS - see below for more details!
- SUMMER SCHOOL FIELD TRIPS are lead in partnership with high school interns to bring OUSD summer school students to The Center.
- MARKET OFF WEST - free resources for the community! Details below.
P.S. Summer is a great time to stay hydrated! Encourage everyone to drink water and choose water over sugar sweetened beverages!
Food Access Highlight: Market Off West
WHAT: Market Off West is a student-lead market for FREE farm-fresh produce, handmade goods, paper goods, self-care items, and flowers in West Oakland. High school interns prepare produce and products, and run the market for the community.
WHERE: Market Off West is located at The Center (address 2850 West St. Oakland, CA) - enter on 29th Street, off West Street
WHEN: Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 10am - 12:30pm, June 5th to July 2nd (excluding holidays)
Open to all community, neighbors, students, and employees. Flier and information available on the Market Off West website.
Summer Internships at The Center
The summer 2024 intern team consists of 12 interns working in one of four areas: Garden, Culinary, Education and Market. Read on to learn more about this paid internship experience for OUSD high school students!
- Market Interns run our free, community market: “Market off West.” Interns will gain entrepreneurial & craftsmanship skills to produce garden-inspired goodies and gain skills in grassroots entrepreneurship, customer service, and marketing.
- Garden Interns are learning how to grow and steward a thriving urban garden and support OUSD’s School Gardens Program and work in the following areas: Care of urban crops, greenhouse planting, compost and vermiculture, fruit tree care, and education on sustainable gardening practices.
- Education Interns are designing and running summer school field trips for elementary students leading environment, food and garden-related activities. Interns will learn teaching practices and be responsible for designing hands-on, engaging activities for young students, creating educational materials and leading classes through a full day of the learning and lunch at The Center.
- Culinary Interns are learning to cook mainly vegetarian, seasonal meals with garden produce, using mostly vegetarian cooking techniques. They learn and practice commercial kitchen protocols, prepare lunch for elementary school students on field trips. prepare condiments and processed food items for the market, and earn their Food Handler’s Certificate.
Want to see internships in action? Come to Market Off West during open hours between June 5th and July 2nd!
All school sites:
- Review the Program Overview for the 2024-2025 EFG Champion Program and Apply! Participation does not role over automatically between years.
- Store your HOTM materials safely for next year!
Summer Garden Stewards (SGS):
- SGS Weekly Log due each Friday.
- Share photos via the SGS 2024 photo album.
- Work towards SGS program goals!
- Read communications from the SGS team.
- All materials on linked on the SGS website.
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.
June in our School Gardens
Garden Maintenance
Trellis climbing vegetables such as peas, beans, if available. Placing mulch, such as straw or dried leaves, around established seedlings can help keep roots stay moist and suppress weeds. Prune herbs, like mint, chives, sage, thyme, and basil, to encourage new growth.
Planting Guide
Carrots and beets need warm weather and moist soil to germinate, so if moisture can be maintained, these can be planted now for an early Fall harvest. Careful not to wash away tiny seeds while watering. Be sure to pay attention to where taller vegetables, like corn and pole beans, are being planted so they don’t cast shade on sun-loving seedlings like cucumbers, peppers, eggplant, and tomatoes.
- Seeds: Beets, Carrots, Parsnips, Kohlrabi, Bush and pole beans, Corn, Summer and Winter Squash, Scallions, Leaf lettuces (protect from direct sun), Pumpkin, Cilantro, Sunflower.
- Plants/Starts: Tomato, Celery, Brussels sprouts, Basil
Pest and Disease Alert
Cabbage looper caterpillars, carrot fly, tomato hornworm. Continue to monitor for snail and slug damage on seedlings and mature plants. Powdery mildew is common on squash and cucumber plants and may be evident on both sides of a leaf. If spotted early, prune the leaf and place it in the municipal compost to prevent the spread. Read our IPM at The Center document to learn how we handle powdery mildew. Check here for other ways to manage powdery mildew.
Butterfly at Sequoia!
Watering at Montclair!
Making garden signage at Street Academy!
July in our School Gardens
Garden Maintenance
As temperatures climb, be sure that your veggies are getting enough water. Water the soil early in the day, and avoid getting leaves of the plant wet. Remove bean and pea plants as they stop producing, add an inch of compost, and immediately plant another round of seeds. Keep up with ripening fruits like strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries. Give fruit trees a deep watering, then fertilize (if available).
Planting Guide
Pinch out the tomato side shoots that appear in the “v” between leaf stems and the main stem. Wind, or tie, them onto a trellis or fence, if available.
- Seeds: Beets, Carrots, Parsnips, Radish, Bush and Pole Beans, Winter Squash, Collards, Mustards, Basil, Tomatillos, Early corn, Parsley
- Plants/Starts: Celery, Brussel Sprouts, Cabbage
Pest and Disease Alert
Turn over leaves and check for scale, tomato hornworms, and cabbage looper. Protect tender seedlings from birds and squirrels with a floating row cover or mesh. Check tomatoes for blight and remove infected leaves, or whole plants, to stop the spread. Try the UC IPM's Plant Problem Diagnostic Tool.
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.
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.
Earth Month Art Contest
It’s been another amazing year on waste prevention in our schools and we finished this year with a wave of creativity for the conclusion of the OUSD Earth Month Art Contest: Fighting Food Waste. This year we had 120 submissions!
Artwork included drawing, painting, 3D art, digital media, and poetry from Pre-K to High School grade levels.
Please enjoy this student art gallery with 100 beautiful student art creations!
We’d like to thank all the judges who reviewed the artwork and helped select the winners as well as the generous donors who provided prizes to our winners: Oakland Zoo, Children’s Fairyland, WM, California Waste Solutions, The Marine Mammal Center, Chabot Space & Science Center, Black Cultural Zone, and StopWaste.
"Don't Waste Food!" - Harriet, Peralta Elementary
"Healthy Planet, Healthy Me" - Claudia, La Escuelita Elementary
"Wrap it right" - Kaid, Sojourner Truth
Summer Waste Prevention Assistance
Our team is available to work with you this summer on planning for the next school year. Please contact Nancy Deming to connect: 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.
Recycling with Ridwell at Thornhill
In April and May, Thornhill participated in a Plastic Film drive through Ridwell to earn a free school Ridwell membership for next school year. Ridwell recycles hard to recycle items like soft plastics and snack wrappers.
Thornhill's dedicated Green Team has been collecting plastic film and multi layer plastic at school for the last few months, with is being picked up at a parent's house. One of our Green Team parents and our two student Green Schools Commissioners have worked hard to make Ridwell collection boxes for each of our classrooms, and we have gone to every classroom to discuss the importance of reducing, properly sorting, and recycling our waste. We also have student green team members helping with lunchtime waste sorting, including collection of items for Ridwell.
During our plastic film drive the Thornhill community collected over 10 large bags of plastics that will be recycled instead of going into the landfill. We also had 12 new families join Ridwell to help reduce waste at their homes.
End of year wrap up: Field Trips at The Center!
We have officially rounded out all of our 2023-2024 school year field trips! What an amazing year it was full of so much exploration, inquiry, and laughter! Thank you to everyone who went above and beyond to bring their classes to The Center for an unforgettable experience this year. To commemorate the wonderful moments we shared, we have put together the 2023-24 The Center Field Trips Yearbook. It captures some of the highlights and joyful memories from throughout the year. You can access the digital version of the yearbook on our field trip webpage! Be on the look out for a field trip registration email for the 2024-2025 school year in August. We can’t wait to keep the fun memories rolling with you all next year!
Thank you Environment, Food, and Garden Team Service Members!
Gratitude for Environment, Food, and Garden Team Members!
We are incredibly grateful for the amazing team of people with The Center Education and Community Programs! We want to share especially deep gratitude to the teammates who wrapped up or are wrapping up their roles or year of service with OUSD this year. Teammates included:
Alison Levy, Benner Mullin, Char Potes, Chere Erickson, Chris Durazo, Devlin Patton, Genevieve Kosciolek, Gus Guerrero, Hannah Yellen, Jessie Gross, Julia Hansen, Lydia Mead, Marlene Couvson, Matteo Brey, Naditza Camacho, Nancy Serrano Lezama, Natalie Keltner Mcneil, Riju Smith, Sara Landsberg, Shuk Man Huang
We celebrate the incredible field trips to The Center, culinary classes, The Center garden, site-based garden education, sustainability work, and so much more with deep gratitude for the ways your care, enthusiasm, dedication, and creativity have shaped our community. Thank you!!!
- Tend to East Oakland Trees, June 1, Free Trees for Deep East Oakland
- The Importance of Herbs for Educational Garden Ecosystems, June 6, 4-5:30 pm online, Yervika (Registration link)
- Just for Teachers: Supporting yourself through herbs & herbal tea blends, June 12, 7-9 pm in Oakland ($), Yervika (Registration link)
- Pollinator Week, June 17 - 21, Pollinator Partnership
- Learn more about the Climate Mental Health Network, ongoing, Climate Mental Health Network
- Action for Happiness Happier June calendar, Greater Good Science Center
- World Environment Day, June 5, United Nations
- World Food Safety Day, June 7, United Nations
- International Day of Play, June 11, United Nations
- Sustainable Gastronomy Day, June 18, United Nations
READS
- Stone Fruit Slide Deck and Newsletters, OUSD HOTM
- African Heritage Diet as Medicine: How Black Food Can Heal the Community, Eating Well
- Presenting Prodigious Purple Pippin Peppers, Rare Seeds
- 2023 Food as Medicine Fact Sheet, The Nutrition Policy Initiative at Tufts University
- Prof Andrea Mechelli: ‘People who live near green space are less likely to struggle with mental health issues’, The Guardian
- Birdwatching Can Improve Mental Health And Reduce Distress In Students, Forbes
- Floyd Zaiger a fruit innovator to the world, SF Gate
- Plumcots, Apriums, Pluots and Their Father of Invention, KQED
- Self-care Summer Toolkit, Alliance for A Healthier Generation
WATCH
- Schoolyard Forest Design Lecture Series 7: Wildlife Habitat as Part of Living Schoolyards, Green Schoolyards America
- R.I.P. Floyd Zaiger - Father of the Pluot, Aprium, Pluerry and 446 Fruit Patents, The Busy Gardener
LISTEN
- Sugar's Dark Shadow, Gastropod
- Meet the Most Famous American You’ve Never Heard Of: His Legacy is Excellent French Fries and Monsanto, Gastropod
- Central Valley Farmworkers Learning New Skills For Changing Agriculture Environment, The California Report
- Tasty Tales of Conference Room Crab, a Cold Turkey Fruitarian, and Tiger Food, KQED
- California's Nuumu People Claim LA Stole Their Water, Now They're Fighting for Its Return, The California Report
COOK
- Stone Fruit recipe archive, CalFresh Healthy Living
- Apricot Chia Jam, 2024 HOTM Calendar
- Apply for next year's EFG Champion program. All schools with gardens are strongly encouraged to apply!
- Seedball Grant, Planet Bee
- 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."