Sarah Bernardi is the art teacher at Bancroft Elementary School in the Mt. Pleasant neighborhood of Northwest Washington, and one of the teachers who assists with the school’s extensive edible gardening efforts.
Students from Bancroft this year were chosen to help Michelle Obama (and White House Pastry Chef William Yosses, pictured above) with the new White House vegetable garden. Here, Sarah interviews two fifth-graders—Marvin and Alexis—about their White House experiences and food gardening in general. In this wide-ranging conversation, Marvin and Alexis reveal that gardening has done more than change the way they look at food. It has brought them new awareness of their role in the cycle of life, developed appreciation for other living things and given them a sense of responsibility to share what they know with others.
Sarah’s questions appear in italics, and she’s included some additional thoughts [in brackets].
So you two have both been, on numerous occasions, to the White House to help Mr. Sam and Mrs. Obama with the garden, correct?
Marvin: That’s right.
Alexis: Yes. And we got to meet Bo. [the Obamas’ dog]
Marvin, You just went the other day. What was the purpose of that trip?
Marvin: To harvest the garden and give the vegetables to people that don’t have enough to eat.
That’s a noble purpose. What did you harvest?
Marvin: Sweet Potatoes, carrots, chili peppers, herbs, um… rabanos? [A kind of pepper?]
Alexis: How do they look?
Marvin: Well, I ate them yesterday at home also. They are red and when you first pick them up they have roots that are long and you have to pull it by the leaves, gently, like a carrot. [A radish, perhaps?]
Alexis: How did you eat it?
Marvin: Just raw, without the leaves.
So you eat well at home.
Marvin: I do.
Do you ever eat junk?
Marvin: For lunch.
Really?
Well, that’s what they give us at school.
[Maybe we need to work more on this: the disconnect between what we teach kids and what we sell them in the lunchroom.]
So let’s get back to the purpose of your trip to the White House.
Alexis: Helping other people get more food?
Exactly.
Alexis: Can we do that here?
What do you guys think?
Marvin: We could plant some vegetables to donate to people that need them.
Alexis: How many beds do we have?
Marvin: I’d say about 8.
Alexis: And two cold frames we made.
Marvin: And the big circle…
The three sisters?
Alexis: Yes!
Marvin: So we could divide the beds in half and keep 4 for ourselves and give 4 away.
Alexis: And instead of giving the same vegetable away each time we can switch them because they need to eat a variety of vegetables also.
[Sounds like these kids can do this on their own.]
Marvin: Remember if we keep planting the same vegetables in the same soil they won’t grow the right way.
Alexis: Why?
Marvin: Every plant needs different nutrients and they use them up in the soil when they grow. So you need to plant different plants in the beds every time so the same nutrient doesn’t get all used up.
Alexis: So by moving the plants you are making the nutrients last?
In a way, yes.
How else can you get more nutrients into the soil?
Marvin: We have a worm composter in the classroom and the worms eat dried paper, vegetables and then when the worms use the bathroom it turns into soil. The nutrients from the vegetables they eat make good soil.
Alexis: So it’s like the worm is the soil maker?
Marvin: Yes.
Alexis: What about roly poly bugs?
Marvin: Those are also good soil makers.
Alexis: If there were no worms there would be no plants.
Marvin: We need bugs to grow plants. Ha!
Alexis: But sometimes the bugs want to eat the plants. People try to kill those bugs with pesticides.
Marvin: Pesticides? Oh, yeah, pesticides! When the monarchs go to Mexico they suck up the pesticides and herbicides on the plants and they die. Then when another animal eats them they get the herbicide in them and they get sick. Then when we eat the animal we get sick.
[After a thoughtful pause…]
Alexis: In gardening, if you mess up a little bit, it messes up a lot. Well, what should we do about them? The bugs.
Marvin: We should not kill them with pesticides because the bugs are the ones that are helping us…
Alexis: Survive.
Marvin: Maybe they just get a little hungry and we should share the vegetables and let them eat.
So, why do you think Mrs. Obama and Mr. Sam asked you to help them with the garden?
Alexis: Because we have experience taking care of a garden.
Marvin: They probably wanted us to help them because it was their first garden and we have been gardening for a long time. When we were in third grade Ms. Iris had us help take care of the garden.
Alexis: They wanted us to share what we learn with other people who don’t know about gardening.
I know a class in Charleston, SC who just built a garden and would love to learn from you. In fact they just made scarecrows to keep the animals from eating their vegetables.
Alexis: We need scarecrows.
Marvin: Can we help with them?
Alexis: Write letters?
Marvin: Send pictures?
Alexis: We can help them know what they should grow.
Let’s talk about your comment on the lunch here at school. It’s different from last years’ lunch, right?
Marvin: It’s not in packages.
Alexis: The taco meat is greasier.
Marvin: They said they were giving us healthier food but the grease is not healthier because it makes you fat.
Alexis: There are more fruits and vegetables.
Marvin: I think the kids are eating more of the food. Before when it was packaged, they threw most of it away.
OK, so if you could change anything about the lunches what changes would you make?
Marvin: Smoothies! Like the ones we made in cooking class.
Alexis: Different pizza toppings, more herbs like mint and chives, peppers, onions, squash.
Marvin: The juices have too much sugar! Apple juice tastes better with no sugar.
Alexis: The strawberry milk is too sweet, too.
Do most kids feel the same way?
Marvin and Alexis in unison: Yes!
Alexis: And also they could use less salt because everything’s too salty.
Most of the time people use salt to give things flavor. What could they use instead of salt to give it flavor?
Alexis: In cooking class we use herbs for flavor.
Marvin: Like mint and chives.
Alexis: Garam masala! We used it when we made Indian food. We took some home.
[Someone please mention that to Chartwells, the D.C. Schools food provider.]
Alexis: Also instead of throwing away the leftovers if we could give them to the hungry people in the city that would be a good thing.
[That would be a good thing. And thanks to Michelle Obama and her chef, Sam Kass, for planting these seeds.]
This post fills me with warmth. Thank you for bringing these kids’ stories and pictures to the blog. We need to keep hearing from them!
Great to see some real dirt-in-the-nails gardeners being born.
How wonderful and touching to hear progress straight from the future…