Over Spring Break, Gateway High School's Garden Club broke ground on the new urban garden/outdoor classroom designated to fill the southeast corner of GHS' parking lot. The project took root in the fall of 2013 when Garden Club Sponsor and Gateway High School Environmental Science teacher Justin Berthiaume followed up on a message from a local permaculture listserv.
“The Hayes Valley Farm was being disassembled, and the members there were trying to find viable homes for everything they had - plants, seeds, tools – which we can always use,” said Mr. Berthiaume. “But they also offered their invisible resources like ingenuity and know-how. That’s how I met Kerry Hughes, who was instrumental in getting Gateway’s urban garden project off the ground.”
A long-time believer in urban gardening and its potential for impact as a teaching tool, Mr. Berthiaume dreamt of creating an outdoor classroom where students could “get their hands dirty” on a larger scale. He discovered that the San Francisco Department of the Environment planned to award grants totaling $233,000 for public gardens in approved spaces throughout the city. Confident that this opportunity perfectly aligned with his goals for Gateway students, Mr. Berthiaume enlisted the help of Gateway High Schools’ leadership team and began the process of application and implementation. Over the course of two months, Mr. Berthiaume et al. secured support from the San Francisco Unified School District and KIPP Bay Academy middle school, which shares a campus with Gateway High School.
In January, due to the legwork and persistence of Mr. Berthiaume, along with the generous guidance of Ms. Hughes, Gateway Public Schools was awarded a $20,000 grant from the San Francisco Department of the Environment to fund the first phase of the garden construction: removing 5,300 square feet of asphalt and installing irrigation to the site.
“It’s such a great opportunity for the students to develop a sense of agency,” said Mr. Berthiaume. “They often don’t think of where food comes from or where their trash goes. They don’t realize the consequences of their actions on the environment. We will not only benefit from hands-on outdoor learning, but we will grow food that can be eaten, shared with the community, or even sold at farmer’s markets. The possibilities for growth and learning are endless.”
Gateway teachers often work behind the scenes to put education into the hands of their students. The Gateway philosophy of fostering student agency means not only aiding students in their quest to find a sense of self, but also providing strategic guidance on how to develop confidence and grit. Part of the toolkit shared with Gateway students is mining community connections for partnership opportunities and not being afraid to ask for help, both of which Mr. Berthiaume insists benefited the project launch.
Says Mr. Berthiaume, “Good teaching happens when you set it up for the students so that they can design, learn, and work on their own. So we’re trying to set it up.”
For pics of the groundbreaking, and updates on the progress of the garden, please visit the Garden Club website. For the latest on the Garden Club activities, check out their recent newsletter and #staytuned for details.