The gardens at Rudecinda Sepulveda Dodson Middle School will grow a little greener this year thanks to a donation of 30 cubic yards of compost from Agromin, California’s largest organics recycler.
The school has 1 acre of agricultural space, including raised garden beds, fruit trees, an ag classroom, a potting room, a lath house, and a greenhouse. Students in the horticultural program classes learn about agriculture–planting watermelon, tomato, lettuce, herb and squash seeds, and tending fruit trees and oaks on the school grounds. At the end of the school year, students take seedlings home to tend over the summer.
“Students develop a back-to-the-land ethos while learning about agriculture and ag industry careers,” says Jeff McBurney, the school’s horticultural teacher. McBurney aims to have all Dodson students spend at least one class period in the garden during their three years at the school.
Multiple collaborators and participants are key to the program’s continued success. “School principal Enrique Macias’s support for the program when it expanded four years ago to its present form has been absolutely essential,” says McBurney. Enrich LA, a nonprofit that has established more than 200 school gardens throughout Los Angeles County, maintains the school garden until students return in the fall.
The garden’s crops benefit multiple campus programs. After the students plant seedlings in the raised beds, they care for them until they are ready for harvest. After harvest, students take the vegetables home to eat. “Some vegetables will go to the school’s culinary arts cooking program,” says McBurney. “This past school year, culinary students made cupcakes and muffins from purple sweet potatoes.”
All the materials in the school garden are organic, including Agromin’s compost. Agromin turns organic waste collected from curbside green recycling barrels into certified all-organic compost. The compost is OMRI-listed, so it can be used to grow organic fruits and vegetables.
“We love working with schools and educational groups to get students excited about where their food comes from,” says Agromin CEO Bill Camarillo. “Agriculture is the backbone of this country, and we need the next generation to carry it forward.”
For more information about school and nonprofit donations, go to www.Agromin.com.