Capital Region Cares Capital Region Cares 2017-2018 | 页面 54

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Terhune says their Children’s Urban Farm Classroom
uring the school year, 13 students from Wash-
ington Elementary School in Stockton, meet program is meant to develop a safe learning landscape and
once a week at the 5.7-acre Boggs Tract Commu- encourage upward mobility of the typically-underserved
nity Farm, where the children grow seedlings students. The benefits are multifaceted and far-reaching, he
into vegetables in one small patch of land. The year-long says, and for the children include improving knowledge and
program, organized through Stockton-based PUENTES’ vocabulary, problem solving, social skills and the aware-
Children’s Urban Farm Classroom, teaches students about ness of available resources.
PUENTES’ approach, Terhune says, is unique because
healthy eating habits, growing their own food and proper
the team strives to develop educational and agricultur-
nutrition.
The students, in third through sixth grade, also spend al activities that local governments can then replicate to
time writing in their journals about their gardening tasks help their local communities. Building equity in neighbor-
and other agricultural issues presented in teacher-led dis- hoods plagued by inadequate access to healthy, whole foods
cussions, says Jeremy Terhune, executive director of PU- through sustainable technology and educational opportu-
ENTES. “Topics include their future career plans and what nities is the focus at PUENTES.
it will take to attain their goals, along with record-keeping,
lessons on agriculture related topics and development of so- RIGHT TO YOUR DOOR
cial and emotional skills.”
PUENTES also offers community supported agriculture
More than 29 million people in the U.S. live in “food des- programs — known as CSAs — throughout the Capital Re-
erts,” where access to affordable, healthy food options is lim- gion. CSAs have become a popular way for consumers to
ited or nonexistent. (A food
buy local, seasonal food direct-
desert is defined as any
ly from a farmer. With a typical
urban home where a gro-
CSA, a farm offers a number of
cery store is further than
shares (boxes of vegetables or
one mile away, or 10 miles
other produce) to the public in
away in a rural area, ac-
exchange for a subscription or
cording to the U.S. Depart-
membership, in which members
ment of Food and Agricul-
receive weekly seasonal produc e
ture.) More than 15 million
throughout the farming sea-
children currently live in
son. Farmers offer CSAs, in part,
food-insecure households
because it helps to provide a
— with limited access to
steady income stream as well as
adequate food and nutri-
much-needed upfront capital at
tion due to cost, proximity
the start of the growing season.
and/or other resources, ac-
CSAs also create opportu-
cording to the USDA.
nities for families to feed them-
PUENTES, a nonprof-
selves more nutritiously and
— Jeremy Terhune, executive director, PUENTES
it urban farm in Stockton
healthfully through the chance
— where many neighbor-
to participate in sustainable ur-
hoods qualify as food deserts — is working hard to change ban agriculture and growing natural foods to make them
that reality for local families. Terhune founded the organi- more widely available in the community, Terhune says.
zation in 2009 after he returned home from Peace Corps ser-
Soil Born Farms is another local nonprofit that helps
vice in Panama and realized that parts of Stockton had more better connect urban residents to their food, their health
food insecurity than what he’d seen in Central America.
and their environment: From their early roots located in the
PUENTES stands for “Promotores Unidos Para La Edu- middle of Sacramento County, Soil Born has long-offered
cación Nacional de Tecnologias Sostenibles,” which trans- a variety of projects and programs in the community that
lates to Promoters United for the National Education of Sus- help create a healthier food system both in their neighbor-
tainable Technologies.
hood and at a regional level.
“We transform all
of our revenues
into garden spaces,
educational programs and
workforce development
opportunities for the
community.”
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