Project: Sprout Workshop with Trees for Food Justice, a project of Boston International High School
Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Operator: Jocelyn Vache
BINcA is a high school within the Boston Public Schools in Massachusetts. Our school services exclusively multilingual learners and immigrant youth. We have many established wraparound services for our students and families beyond academics (ex. support for housing, immigration, childcare, employment, etc..). We focus on food security via our in-house food pantry that distributes non-perishable staples (and fresh produce, funding-dependent) every two weeks. We have several raised gardening beds where we grow produce for our families. Half of the beds are managed by my after school gardening club (“BUGS” – BINcA Urban Gardening and Sustainability). We align the club’s activities with the food pantry in order to harvest on distribution days.
Every year I ask the students what they would like to grow in the garden and without fail, they request plants and trees like mango and banana that we cannot grow in zone 7. We have, however, added hot peppers, peanuts, Middle Eastern molokhia, and Haitian lalo. Since we are in zone 7, our outdoor garden production slows down in the fall and all but stops over the winter. This time of year we pivot to growing sprouts and microgreens for the food pantry. The sprouts and shoots we regularly grow are radish, sunflower, broccoli, and peas.
Our new project combines welcoming families through honoring their culture and holding food justice workshops to teach families techniques they can use to independently grow their own sprouts and microgreens and having the students plant trees that they are accustomed to.
Contact Info: bihs@bostonpublicschools.org
Website: www.bincabps.org
