RHS Urban Ag ProgramCan Urban Agriculture Promote

Health and Community

Jesse Kurtz-NichollUrban Tilth, Program Coordinator

Center for a Livable Future, Research Associate

Johns Hopkins University

MPH Student 2010

Richmond High School gang rape: Four men charged in vicious attack on 15-year-old California girl

Urban Agriculture Program

Richmond High SchoolRichmond, CA

What is the Problem?Obesity Map

Richmond and West Contra Costa

• 23.8% of CC county students are overweight, in Richmond the number is 35.2%, in San Pablo is 36.8% [3]

• California’s rate is 28.1%

• Why is Richmond and San Pablo so much above our state average?

”Overweight Children in California Counties, 2004" Contra Costa County. 2004. California Center for Public Health Advocacy, Web. 24 Sep 2009. < http://www.publichealthadvocacy.org>

This was student created!

Leadership Team

Park Guthrie – Urban Tilth

Katherine Collins – UC Berkeley Senior

Lorna Mclellan and Jesse Kurtz-Nicholl: Teachers at RHS

The Urban Ag Students…

Urban Ag Students: The numbers

• 22 students started– 5 Boys– 17 Girls

• 1 African American• 1 Asian student• 20 Latino students

• Close to matching % racial demographics of the school

How were students recruited?

• 3 Sources:– Senior Service

Learning Requirement– Participating Teacher’s

Classes and Word of Mouth

– Student Club YME (Youth Mentors and Educators)

Before and AfterBefore and After2007-20092007-2009

BeforeBefore AfterAfter

What makes this program different from hundreds of others?

• AP Scientific Study Review – out of 57 studies funded with over 1 billion government dollars aimed at increasing Fruit and Veg consumption only 4 yielded results, nutritional programs affected student knowledge and attitude level, but had little effect on behavior.★

• Why?• Most school garden programs

are educational “museums” focused on education where kids can see what plants are, but don’t grow enough to take more than a taste and definitely not enough to effect their food supply or feel the efficacy to change their community.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-07-04-fightingfat_N.htm

Program Model• Food Production Focus

• Institutionalized

• Action and Service Oriented

• Working Groups with student

autonomy

Nursery and propagationNursery and propagation

• Used permaculture Used permaculture and organic and organic techniques to techniques to garden in multiple garden in multiple sitessites

• Helped put together Helped put together the weekly CSAthe weekly CSA

• Worked in multiple Worked in multiple community gardens.community gardens.

• Worked in the Worked in the garden from seed to garden from seed to harvestharvest

Alejandra, Maria, Jessica, Anna

Community Food Security GroupCommunity Food Security Group

• Surveyed Richmond Surveyed Richmond High Students about High Students about eating habits, efficacy, eating habits, efficacy, and health behaviorsand health behaviors

• Students used the Students used the RFEI (Retail Food RFEI (Retail Food Environment Index) to Environment Index) to study the state of study the state of Richmond’s local food Richmond’s local food systemsystem

• In the future this could In the future this could be an incubator for be an incubator for work in public health or work in public health or environmental scienceenvironmental science

Maritza and Lizeth

This was student created!

Documentation Group

• This group created bi-weekly youtube videos of the groups accomplishments

• Student Video• They also created a

power-point presentation for the students to give at the City Council of Richmond.

Claudia, Nick, Ilithyia, Karolyn

Student Videos

• Student Video #1

• 5:20…

• Student Video #2

Marketing groupMarketing group• Created a CSA Created a CSA

newsletter that went newsletter that went to every family, with to every family, with nutrition info, recipes nutrition info, recipes and updatesand updates

• Acted as a liason Acted as a liason between the group and between the group and the parents. Often the parents. Often using Spanish to using Spanish to convey recipes and convey recipes and knowledge and knowledge and collecting feescollecting fees

• In charge of measuring In charge of measuring the success of the CSA the success of the CSA through family surveysthrough family surveys

Community Partnerships: Urban Tilth

• Local Non-profit• Suports Urban Ag

projects in Richmond• Presently supporting 6

schools in Richmond with after school garden/Ag programs– Richmond High– Lincoln Elementary– Verde Elementary– Kennedy High – Crestmont School– West County Community

High School

Doria Robinson

Park Guthrie

Community Partnerships: Fruit Tree Grafting with Rare Fruit Tree

Growers Association

Fruit Tree Grafting

• Combined with the Rare Fruit Tree Growers Association

• Students grafted 90 fruit trees in one afternoon.

• Student grafted trees will be planted in on campus orchards and public parks in Richmond

Harvest Days

• Every other Thursday harvested two sites

• Controlled Chaos for 2 hours

• 10-12 families/ CSA received approximately 10 pounds of fruits and vegetables

• Over 70 families signed up, we could only accommodate 10/week

Harvest Days

CSA = Community Supported Agriculture

• A Study of CSA participants show that people who become members of a CSA consume significantly more produce – 80% in adults, up to 60% in children.

CSA AccomplishmentsCSA Accomplishments

• Week 1 – 70 PoundsWeek 1 – 70 Pounds• Week 2 – 82 PoundsWeek 2 – 82 Pounds• Week 3 – 102 PoundsWeek 3 – 102 Pounds• Week 4 – 122 PoundsWeek 4 – 122 Pounds• Week 5 - 104 PoundsWeek 5 - 104 Pounds• Week 6 - 120 PoundsWeek 6 - 120 Pounds• Week 7 - 125 PoundsWeek 7 - 125 Pounds• Summer Yield: 300 poundsSummer Yield: 300 pounds

– Most went home with studentsMost went home with students

• Total Yield - 1000 Pounds of Total Yield - 1000 Pounds of Fresh Organic Produce for Fresh Organic Produce for Richmond High FamiliesRichmond High Families

• 70 Families Participating70 Families Participating

Final Project: City Council Presentation

• Students final project in the course was a presentation of their work at the Richmond City Council

• Authentic Education

Retention Rate

• 22 Started…20 finished the class.

• Retention rate of 90%• Why?

– Institutionalized as a course worth credit

– Legitimacy– Naturally engaging– Community Oriented– Project Oriented with

lots of Freedom

Future Directions

• Second piloted class is slated to begin Feb 2010

• Expansion of Garden to two 8,000 square foot school farms on 2 sites.

• Plans for 10,000 lbs of produce grown on each site within 3 years.

• Summer and Full Time Interns

• Program Evaluation

Sources

• 1 - Melissa Gilkey , . "Perspectives on Childhood Obesity Prevention: Recommendations from Public Health Research and Practice ." www.jhsph.edu/clf . Winter 2007. The Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future and The Department of Health, Behavior and Society, Web. 17 Sep 2009.

• 2 - [11] Ogden CL, Carroll MD, Curtin LR, McDowell MA, Tabak CJ, Flegal KM. Prevalence of overweight and obesity in the United States, 1999-2004. JAMA 2006; 295: 1549-1555.

• ”Overweight Children in California Counties, 2004" Contra Costa County. 2004. California Center for Public Health Advocacy, Web. 24 Sep 2009. < http://www.publichealthadvocacy.org>.