Last summer, when a 6-year-old picked up the phone in the Media Education room and called out “Hello? Cucumber? I’m coming to the garden right now, ok? Just wait for me,” it was a cute reminder of the connection that children can have with nature when given the opportunity. It was also an indication of how Garden Kitchen Lab’s farm-to-table educational program captures the hearts and minds of children and transforms their daily eating habits, encouraging them to choose nutritious foods they know how to grow over less healthy options.
Thanks to the generous support of sponsors and donors, we hosted just shy of 1,300 visits this year, with children joining us for our after school activities, summer camp programs, or for one-off visits. And while the Garden Kitchen Lab team is busy closing our gardens down for the winter, we wanted to share a quick overview of the year’s highlights. Stories from four of our gardens below:
Dyckman Farmhouse Museum, Inwood, Upper Manhattan
Children who enrolled in the Garden Kitchen Lab at Camp Dyckman followed a curriculum in line with the historic farmhouse’s commitment to recognizing the many communities that have been part of its 237 year history. The campers prepared an Algonquin salad by harvesting naturally grown dandelions in our raised beds and roasted pumpkin seeds, one of the Three Sisters plants we grow in the garden. They made and tasted delicious African chapatis and corn flatbread. Learning about the history of wheat, corn, Africa, and Mesoamerica are some of the cooking history workshops that children enjoy the most. Finally, to wrap up their camp experience, participants planted collard greens and cabbages to take home to harvest right in time for Thanksgiving!
An additional 397 children visited the garden this year by participating in the Dyckman’s Farm-to-City tours. The visitors harvested from our abundant mint garden, learned about mint’s properties and took bunches of the herb home. “Teachers and kids alike are always enchanted when a regular school tour turns unexpectedly into a harvesting experience,” says Fabiola Cáceres, Garden Kitchen Lab founder and also Dyckman’s Director of Education.
McCarren in Greenpoint, Brooklyn
The Garden Kitchen Lab at McCarren Park has built a wonderful community around the garden. It serves 19 neighborhood children, most of whom come with one and sometimes both parents, which makes it a family affair and a true community resource. When the garden co-hosted a culinary workshop with the Demo Garden, many families joined in to prepare squash flowers together. « I have never had so many languages spoken in my garden simultaneously– English, Spanish, German, Chinese, and Polish! It was a wonderful experience» says educator Diana Baker. Many of the children are homeschooled, so the parents network about education and learn about science and gardening. Two families began gardening independently this year due to the class. Another built three planting beds on their roof.
In addition, The Garden Kitchen Lab program started working with the Cooper Houses, a Bushwick organization catering to underserved children in the projects and hosted 30 of their children every week to teach them how to cultivate and eat garden-to-table. This exciting new program will pick back up in the spring of 2024.
Hunts Point in the Bronx
The Garden Kitchen Lab program at our largest site in Hunts Point in the Bronx teaches 30 children every week from the Graham Windham after-school program. Recently, our educator Stephanie Flores was delighted to hear one of her 4th graders realize during the seed saving workshop how one seed can make up to 12 other tomatoes.” His response, says Flores, was as endearing as it was hopeful: “Wow! Did we solve world hunger? ».
Given the garden’s size, our staff is able to welcome the larger community and organize events. Odalys Burgoa, our garden manager, collaborated with the CDC The Point, a beloved local organization, to hold a Día de los Muertos family photoshoot that The Point’s photography students art directed. “The garden is more than a place where children learn how to plant and harvest,” says Burgoa. “Mothers come to see their children play while they harvest, exchange recipes, and talk about food with other mothers,” Burgoa says. Recently, a mother harvested herbs and veggies and brought back a veggie pasta to share with her garden family.
St. John’s in Crown Heights, Brooklyn
At St. John’s Recreation Center, Garden Kitchen Lab educator Misha Illin taught an after-school program for 15 children every week, and Linda Viney, our volunteer garden manager, welcomed 81 community members, mostly Crown Heights seniors, who received fresh vegetables weekly. The program has become a favorite, with other Recreation counselors sometimes participating in classes and asking Illin for recipes. Illin tells us that the kids are always happy and curious: “They like to suggest what we can do next, like kneading the dough to make cookies.”
We’re thankful to our amazing supporters, whether individual donors or institutional funders. We are grateful to ConEdison, City Garden’s Club, and Katie’s Krops grants for their generous support of the Hunt’s Point program. Big thank you to the full Dyckman Farmhouse staff as well as the Cooper Graduate Internship Program for their support at our Inwood location. And we couldn’t do any of this without the backing of the New York City Parks Department and the fiscal sponsorship of the City Parks Foundation.
To support Garden Kitchen Lab’s activities, please consider a tax-exempt donation of any amount. We’re fundraising for #GivingTuesday at:
https://ioby.org/project/garden-kitchen-lab-additional-gardening-hours
GARDEN KITCHEN LAB 