FOOD&DRINK

Growing young minds

Charter school harvests an education by letting kids get their hands dirty

By Addie Broyles
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Wednesday, May 21, 2008

The food could not have been any more local. More than 100 diners were there not only to enjoy food eaten where it was grown, but also to support a charter school that specializes in integrating food into the student curriculum.

The four-course meal was impeccably fresh. Baby squash, zucchini and carrots, all picked just feet away, filled light, homemade ravioli topped with browned butter. The crisp bite of green garlic brightened the beef consommé, and the care with which farmers Erin Flynn and Skip Connett raised their pig was evident in the sausage, pork rib cube and melt-in-your-mouth pork terrine served with swiss chard.

Donated produce and pork from Green Gate Farms, along with onions and other ingredients that Austin Discovery School students picked from the school's garden just days before Saturday's dinner, produced a meal fit for supporting an unusual school. The Discovery school is just down the road in far East Austin from the farm.

Flynn and her husband Connett own Green Gate Farms and send their two children to the school. "The point is to eat at the source," Flynn says. "It really does affect the taste."

And she's right.

The dinner, outside under the stars and a few lights, was a fine example of slow food, which is local food prepared in a way that celebrates food traditions and encourages people to take interest in what they eat and how it affects the rest of the world. This was the second year that Connett and Flynn hosted the $100-a-plate fundraiser, much of whose proceeds go to the school's environment and gardening program, which is run by Rebecca Vore.

The school, started in 2005, was created in part to help change the way kids think about food, says co-founder Leigh Moss, who also teaches at the school. Moss and others who wrote the school's charter wanted to create an environment where kids could grow their own food and learn the benefits of fresh, locally raised food, she says.

Moss had worked at another charter school where she noticed how sluggish her students became eating Cheetos and drinking Coke at lunch. A rush of hyperactivity led to a sugar crash, and then the kids' ability to pay attention was lost, which led to discipline troubles and less time in the classroom. It was clear to her and the other charter members that by changing what students chose to eat, the kids would learn more and be better stewards in their communities.

Several public in Austin, including Allison and Mathews elementary schools, Small Middle School, and Garza High School; and private schoolsSt. Stephen's Episcopal School and Redeemer Lutheran School, offer student gardening programs. But Vore and Austin Discovery are taking the concept further by making food and gardening a primary focus of the curriculum.

"Being outside teaches them respect, observation, curiosity," says Vore, who has been with the school since the start. "It leads to conversations about why caterpillars are on the fennel plants, why ladybugs are on the parsley." Vore and other teachers at Austin Discovery School integrate science, math, literacy, music and art when moving the classroom outdoors to gardens on the school's 200 acres.

Food-inspired curriculum was one of the main reasons Christina Moxie enrolled her two kids at the Discovery School. "They're not just being educated about food, they are being exposed to new things," Moxie says. "It makes a colossal difference."

Every child who graduates from the school earns a Junior Master Gardener certification, Vore says, by working in the various gardens on the school's property, which include a flower garden designed as a color wheel and a pizza-shaped plot filled with ingredients for the students' upcoming annual pizza party.

Eating what they grow is as important as the act of growing it.

Vore likes to cook up kale, cabbage, turnip and collard greens, tomatoes and other produce after taking her classes into the gardens. "I'll have kids say, 'I didn't know I liked cabbage,' " she says.

"They are overwhelmed by tasting a strawberry picked right off the vine," she says. "They didn't even know what a real strawberry tasted like."

Outside the three long classroom buildings, which are a small part of the now abandoned Texas State School, students grow squash, tomatoes, onions, green beans, potatoes, peppers, basil, oregano, eggplant and mint, but they don't grow enough during the school year to sustain the 240 children in grades kindergarten through fifth at the school. But toward the end of the school year, there sometimes is a surplus of food that the school donates or sells to parents.

While one group of students helps prepare a new vegetable, Vore leads the students around to the other classes to share what they've cooked up. "We're setting lifelong patterns with their food choices," Vore says.

A strict food policy also helps teach kids how good nutrition affects their lives, Moss says. Kids aren't allowed to bring in their lunch boxes foods with hydrogenated fats, food dyes, high-sugar, caffeine or chocolate. "We tell the kids that they can eat what they want at home," Moss says, "but we show them the research on nutrition and artificial sweeteners and whole grains" and the students start pressuring each other not to bring in bad-for-you foods, she says.

Moss says she immediately noticed a difference after Austin Discovery opened. "The kids are able to pay attention for longer periods of time and be more productive," she says. They can get through the longer day the school has in order to have half-days on Fridays for teacher planning.

Stacey Hoyt, a mother of two Austin Discovery students, says the nutrition policy is good for her as a parent. "I know sugar corn pops aren't good for my kids, but it can be hard" on busy parents to always make the right food choices, she says. Hoyt goes to the weekend classes the school offers for parents, which include many on nutrition and cooking, to learn the benefits of fresh, local food.

Food that is grown on site will play an even more prominent role as the program, and garden beds, mature. "My vision is to have a garden sustain a cafeteria" to serve the students, Moss says. She said another goal is to grow enough produce so that students can try their hand at selling at a farm stand. At the fundraiser Saturday, Vore was busy working to serve the food that Texas Culinary Academy Chef Gary Ackerman and a team of volunteer students were preparing in a makeshift kitchen set up in a barn at Green Gate Farms. Buzzing around the tables, she talked to everybody from parents to people who'd never even heard of the school, clearing plates and making sure everyone had enough wine.

Flynn and Connett showed off the gardens and farmhouse as peacocks squawked from their perches in the trees. Moxie and Hoyt, having volunteered earlier in the night taking tickets at the gate and setting the tables, were enjoying themselves as guests rather than parent volunteers.

As diners savored a lavender ice cream dessert, Vore stood to thank the sponsors, cooks, volunteers and parents who helped put on the event. She especially thanked Connett and Flynn, who donate many hours and materials to the school's garden. Connett and Flynn, who weren't farmers when they moved from Atlanta two years ago with their kids, spent all day Sunday cleaning up after the event, but they said helping out the school and bringing local food to people is worth it.

"(The school) is a place where the children are really encouraged to explore," Flynn said, "helping the child think rather than follow the rules."

abroyles@statesman.com; 912-2504

Farm and school

Austin Discovery School, 8509 FM 969, serves grades kindergarten through fifth. There is a waiting list to get in, but the school uses a lottery to fill open spaces. www.austindiscoveryschool.org. 674-0700

Green Gate Farms cultivates 31/2 acres at 8310 Canoga Ave. It sells produce through a community supported agriculture subscription program and at a farm stand at FM 969 and Decker Lane open noon to 6 p.m. Fridays and 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturdays. www.greengatefarms.net, greengatefarms@gmail.com. 926-2436