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a really good song

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Name: Ryan Witczak (he/him)
Year: Senior
Major: Chemistry and Spanish; concentration in biochemistry and molecular biology

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Bri Fonville (she/her)
Bri did an amazing job as our garden coordinator by helping us figure out how to transform this garden, all while being very pregnant! She is in charge of integrating the work she does with Fair Food Matters into the Nature Center's youth programs like this one at Woodward Elementary. She just had her baby!

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Name: Maija Weaver (she/her)
Year: Senior
Major: Biology

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The compost at Woodward , while plentiful, is full of "brown" matter (dirt, soil, dry) but needs "green" matter. This green matter is usually wet and helps to decompose and speed up the compost process!

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Garden bed that will be demolished to make space for the new shed

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Name: Lexi (she/her/hers)
Year: Sophomore
Major: Biology

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A man on the sidewalk walking by stopped to talk to Bri and Laura and commented on what a wonderful job they were doing bringing this garden to life. He then offered to buy us Little Caesars pizza and walked off. But I loved this interaction because he was a member of the community that was so happy with the work we were doing in the garden. It's really cool to see people walking by and talking notice and smiling at the garden. It's not only there there for the students to enjoy, but the entire community as well.

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Name: Maddy (she/hers)
Year: Junior
Major: Biology and Spanish

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Since I was unable to garden the previous Tuesday, I made up for it by working with the Thursday group this week. We worked on clearing out the shed to prep it for demolition, and found new homes in the elementary school for all of the gardening supplies. It was really cool being inside the school and seeing the classrooms and tiny chairs... I haven't been inside an elementary school in forever!

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Canceled due to Day of Gracious Living (DOGL).

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Week 5 we did not spend much time in the garden, as we loaded up pavers that were taking up space in the shed as well as logs into Bri's truck and took them to the nature center to recycle.

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Week 4 was cancelled due to cold weather conditions.

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another view of the demolished shed

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Fixing the irrigation system

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Species include: thistles, thyme, showy tick-trefoil, robin's plantain, fleabane, and strawberries

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These three trees provide most of the shade in the garden, making it possible to grow plants that prefer shade or partial shade

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Tuesday Woodward School Garden Volunteers

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Tuesday Woodward School Garden Volunteers

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Name: Cate (she/her/hers)
Year: Senior
Majors: English and Political Science

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Lauren (she/her)
Sophomore
Major: Anthropology with Environmental Studies concentration

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First plants that were planted during 9th week.

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Salvaged plants

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Plant graveyard

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Shed was demolished

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Article about Kalamazoo community gardens

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The city of Kalamazoo has become a hotbed for community gardens, with over 35 on record. Neighbors look to gardening for outdoor entertainment and relationship building - and as a way to get everyone eating their veggies.

Heather Crull, Growing Matters garden manager at Fair Food matters, stumbled upon a strategy for getting kids to eat vegetables while tending to the Roots of Knowledge community garden at Woodward Elementary School.

"I had a kindergarten class that was working on a broccoli patch, and when the broccoli was ripe they were so excited to pick it. They were just like, 'Can we eat our broccoli? Please? Please?'" Crull says.

Fair Food matters started the garden over 10 years ago. The organization aims to improve access to healthy, local food for Kalamazoo residents. This project, located on school grounds, focuses on youth.

"A lot of the students that are involved in the program don't have access to a lot of fresh food and they don't have access to land to grow fresh food," says Crull. "This is a way for them to connect with how to grow food, where it comes from, what it tastes like fresh from the garden."

Roots of Knowledge is one of many community gardens in the city. Common Grounds, a partnership between Fair Food Matters, the Kalamazoo County Land Bank, Michigan State University Extension and the Kalamazoo Nature Center, keeps a directory that lists them all. The partnership started two years ago as a way for the groups to streamline the process of giving information to interested gardeners, says Linda Whitlock of MSU Extension.

"We were all receiving questions from residents of the greater Kalamazoo area who were looking for resources and information about community gardening," Whitlock says.

Whitlock has noticed an increased interest in community gardening in recent years. Erica Barajas of Fair Food Matters, who previously served as garden manager at Roots of Knowledge, says she thinks the trend has roots in the economic slump.

"When the economy goes down, then people try to find ways of lowering their expenses...Gardening can be a way of doing that," she says. "And, you know, if you don't have time or money to go to the movies or go on vacation, then having a garden at home is a way to have some leisure time or some recreation that doesn't cost you anything."

At the Vine Neighborhood Community Garden, Vine resident Emily Demorest sees low costs as one of many benefits of gardening.

"It's a good chance for people to see other people...There are very few things that you can collectively create and both take from and people don't make a fuss about it. And it's free. We do it for free," Demorest says.

The garden has changed hands since it was founded five or six years ago. Gardeners work the land communally, contributing to all areas of the garden and taking crops as needed. Current coordinator Sarah Drumm says this has its pros and cons.

"There's not as much ownership," says Drumm. "If somebody comes through and takes that head of broccoli that's been growing and I didn't get it, it's not as big of a deal to me. I come in and I harvest a ton of stuff and we get lots out of the garden but, you know, it's not my plot that got taken from. It's everybody's plot."

The garden, which sits on a formerly abandoned lot, has grown this year. Drumm says they have added three or four new raised plant beds to the property. On a weekday afternoon, the sound of construction machines and cars makes it hard to mentally escape into the nature-filled plot of land, but Drumm says location is key.

"This is where people see, you know, the Vine neighborhood. If they look at it and say, 'Wow, there are people standing in a garden in the Vine neighborhood,' that is a mind shift for a lot of people, and that's important to me," Drumm says.

As for the personal payoff, Drumm sees some of the same benefits for her family that Crull sees for her students.

"My son and daughter ate a ton of Swiss chard the other day. I had never had Swiss chard probably until I was 35, so that's just all I need to know," she says. "They look at it, they see it's colorful and they eat it when it's on the table."

A list of gardens in Kalamazoo and the surrounding area can be found here.

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The city of Kalamazoo has become a hotbed for community gardens, with over 35 on record. Neighbors look to gardening for outdoor entertainment and relationship building - and as a way to get everyone eating their veggies.

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Kalamazoo Nature Center and Fair Food Matters Webpage

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Kalamazoo Nature Center and Fair Food Matters Webpage

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Program History

Fair Food Matters began in 2001 as an educational resource for issues in the food system. As the local food movement grew in Kalamazoo, FFM honed in on creating food and garden based experiential education for local youth. In 2007, FFM partnered with Woodward School for Technology and Research. In collaboration with various local educators and partners, the existing garden was transformed into an outdoor classroom where students apply in-class learning as they develop important life skills and connect with the natural world.

The gardening and environmental education programs facilitated by FFM at Woodward School have a new home within KNC's Department of Learning and Engagement. The addition of this program will enable KNC to continue FFM's mission.

In the Garden

Over 300 students are involved in learning activities in the garden each year. Woodward students apply math, science, language arts, creative arts, history, nutrition, physical education, and more as they learn how to garden organically from seed to compost. Students are excited to eat the fresh food they have grown. Ever had kindergarteners begging to eat broccoli? We have! The Woodward Garden has several areas for vegetables, herbs, strawberries, and perennial flowers, including a native pollinator bed.

Emphasis on Equity

The Fair Food Matters Program is especially committed to making food and garden based learning opportunities available in parts of the Kalamazoo community that have historically faced food apartheid and other forms of systemic opression. We seek to educate about food with an awareness that this right is not afforded to all communities. Our staff strives to use Anti-bias/Anti-racism teaching techniques (ABAR) to "support all children's full development in our multiracial, multilingual, multicultural world and give them the tools to stand up to prejudice, stereotyping, bias, and eventually to institutional 'isms'" 2 as we explore the importance of food in our everyday lives, in hopes of contributing to a food sovereign Kalamazoo. Photo by Keith Muma

After School Programs: Club Grub & Good Food Crew

Club Grub is an after school program at Woodward Elementary that explores healthy eating, gardening, and community. In partnership with Kalamazoo College's Center for Civic Engagement, we use games, hands-on activities, group discussions and field trips to learn about nutrition, organic gardening, recipes, cooking basics, and where food comes from. We make a healthy snack or meal to eat every week as we learn about different foods! Food is a big, important part of our lives. Club Grub creates a space for children to share their experiences and ideas about what they eat. We aim to build life-long healthy eating habits and share the community aspect of food. We believe kids should be able to nourish their own bodies and minds, and feel empowered to share what they discover with their families and community.

We offer a condensed version of this year-long after school program at various locations called "Good Food Crew", in which we learn about the same subjects in 5-7 weeks. Photo by Keith Muma

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Fair Food Matters began in 2001 as an educational resource for issues in the food system. As the local food movement grew in Kalamazoo, FFM honed in on creating food and garden based experiential education for local youth. In 2007, FFM partnered with Woodward School for Technology and Research.

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Cleared space for new shed

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Lexi, Maija, and Maddy using the new composter.

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Composter

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Garlic Mustard

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Fresh mulch added to garden beds

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Clearing dirt from the corner bed to prepare for raised bed demolition and construction of new shed.

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All plant beds were weeded

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Three Sisters Garden

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Orientation at Woodward Garden

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Brush Pile

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Strawberry Patch

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Raked the boarder, cleared stumps, and moved brush pile.