Oakland Leaf envisions an Oakland community where schoolyards are transformed into dynamic learning environments for students, families, elders, educators, community organizations, and the city as a whole. Love Cultivating Schoolyards began with a school-based program and will grow to become a system-wide movement to improve student and family nutrition through classroom learning, promote school garden and landscape policy at district and city levels and generally promote a sustainable, ecologically-sound way of life.
At the roots of this initiative was the creation of a flagship garden at ASCEND, an east Oakland public school serving 264 students in grades kindergarten through eight. The ASCEND garden engages the support of an existing, well-organized parent community and includes contributions from parents, educators, community members and organizations. Ecology Instructor Matthew Linzner, students, and volunteers work together to cultivate living landscapes that serve a multiplicity of functions: as spaces for creative play; sites of experiments as outdoor, "living lab" classrooms; sources for food production; inspiration for curriculum development and opportunity for application; sanctuaries for after-school adult and adult education programs; and stages for community celebrations.
Our long-term aim is to establish an ecological community that develops an interconnected network of urban gardens to provide a local, secure, and ecological food-source for families while also catalyzing micro-enterprises based on the products yielded from these gardens (such as honey, salsa, and garden crafts) and improving the overall livelihood, health and vitality of east Oakland's densely-gridlocked flatlands communities.
A Photograph Goes Here: Define VIA the CSS only!
"A flower from the ghetto knows more about survival than the one from fresh meadows."Talib Kweli, Reflection Eternal
Look for LCS's ASCEND Garden on MySpace:
www.myspace.com/ascendgarden
For more information about our programs...
phone: (510) 533-5989
fax: (510) 533-8825
or email us here...
Love is an Action