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by Alice Debbaudt of Farming's Future

Don't we all try to make a new year's resolution? Don't we start the year with vigor, promises, and an optimistic attitude for positive change in our lives?

What if your New Year's resolution was to do something for someone else? Instead of focusing on your own personal needs, what if you tried to change the lives of others. You'd still make a positive change in your life, so why not?

Nothing new about this idea, doing something good for someone else. But what if the thing you decided to do was to grow food (yes, real food) for the needy food banks?

It is a bit of a stretch to think it could just happen. It would probably be easier to just lose ten pounds! Then again, you could lose ten pounds just growing one or two hundred heads of lettuce. To me, I'd rather go outside and tend those lettuce heads than run on a treadmill and eat sparing meals and weigh myself every day. Being productive while getting healthy seems like a timesaver.

There is a project out there, called "KIDS GIVE BACK", where the goal is to encourage students to grow food for food banks. It was instigated at a few public schools where the teachers/administrators were interested in more of a cause for their school gardens. The effort was spurred by an article in the Los Angeles Times that painted a grim picture of the state of our LOCAL communities and the serious shortage of any kind of food to share, packaged or fresh.

This project was started at LAUSD's Instructional School Garden Program. That program ends in June 2009 and will be continued by Farming's Future, and eco-educational non-profit organization.

Each school is concentrating on one type of winter vegetable. Cabbage, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, bok choy, sugar snap peas, and mustard are some of the vegetables being grown now. After the winter break, we will get onions, potatoes, garlic, carrots, radishes started.

It's fascinating to watch the process as students, some for the first time, obtain information about where their food comes from, or how long it takes to grow. Elementary school children really flock to the garden and most seem to have no problem getting their hands dirty! Middle school students are quite different. Some wear white clothes and get disgusted with worms or grubs. Some work for a bit and then get distracted.

But no matter. What's marvelous is to see them outdoors. Little urban farmers!

Kids, thanks for the giving!

Preparing "lasagna" beds for lettuce at a middle school

High school students in South Central