Gardening for Life: Lessons from Hufford Jr. High

I’ve met Doris Hamm only once, but she’s already one of my heroes. She’s started something here in Joliet that’s going to change the world, one school and one kid at a time.

Hamm is a teacher’s assistant at Joliet’s Hufford Junior High School in Darren Raichart’s “Life Skills” class for cognitively-challenged students. She is the architect of a truly extraordinary project: a vegetable garden in Hufford’s courtyard run by her Life Skills students, who have fun getting dirty and learning hands-on gardening techniques, food preparation and cooking skills, and practical lessons in science, math, and economics.

Life Skills students in their courtyard garden at Hufford Jr. High School, Joliet IL (photo: IL District 86)

Hamm likens this sustainable experiential learning process to fishing. “It’s like the old Bible story goes,” she told me. “If you give someone a fish, you feed them for a day. If you teach them to fish, you feed them for a lifetime.”

Her students are eating it up. During my visit in the fall of 2009 to Hufford’s Life Skills classroom, the kids eagerly showed me pictures of their garden and told me about their experiences. Some struggled merely to say their names; but their enthusiasm for and knowledge about their garden was nothing short of phenomenal.

In the spring of 2009, the garden’s inaugural year, Hamm and her charges sowed $28 worth of vegetable seedlings. Their diverse array of crops included green beans, peas, tomatoes, broccoli, collard greens, cucumbers, peppers, onions, cabbage, and zucchini.

The kids tended their garden through the summer growing season by watering, pulling weeds, and harvesting food. Later, they used their vegetables in recipes and froze their excess bounty. When Thanksgiving, they cooked a feast made from the organic produce they grew, processed, and preserved themselves.

Hufford Life Skills students at their Fall 2009 farmers market in the school hallways (photo: IL District 86)

Most amazingly, the Life Skills students ran three farmer’s markets in the hallways of Hufford in the fall of 2009. Strategically timed for payday, the markets proved a huge hit among faculty and staff, and made over $300 collectively — a stunning 980% return on their initial investment. Green venture capitalists, take note!

This success has stoked great plans for coming years. Hamm and her student-gardeners hope to significantly expand their courtyard plot, dedicate part of their harvest to local charities, expand their farmer’s market operation, consider ways to supply the school cafeteria with fresh in-season vegetables, and include many more students in this incredible hands-on learning experience.

Based on what I’ve seen so far, I know they’ll make it happen. After all, they’re not just learning to plant seeds or pull weeds. They’re gardening for life.

This essay was originally published as an op-ed column in the Joliet Herald-News on 5 November 2009. The Hufford courtyard garden has expanded as of March 2012, and the children there are busy planning their 2012 planting and growing season.

The garden project now involves several groups of kids from this urban middle school of almost 1,100 students, including those in Hufford’s Independent Education magnet program as well as those with chronic behavior problems who are learning to work side-by-side with their peers in a peaceful and respectful manner and, in the process, forging friendships with their developmentally-disabled peers.

For more information about school gardens and improving school lunch programs, check out the Illinois Nutrition Education and Training Program.

Urban Agriculture in Joliet

The phrase “urban agriculture” might seem like an oxymoron. But this burgeoning social and economic movement is revolutionizing food production, land use, K-12 education, and community development in big cities like Chicago, Detroit, and Oakland. But smaller cities like my hometown of Joliet have an opportunity to vault to the vanguard of urban agricultural innovation, if they just seize the day.

This spring some of my Roosevelt University students and I work Wednesday afternoons at the Chicago Lights Urban Farm, a small but incredibly productive operation in the Cabrini-Green neighborhood on Chicago’s Near-North Side.

Chicago Lights Urban Farm (M. Bryson)

This half-acre oasis of green built atop an abandoned basketball court started as a community garden back in 2002. Now, the Chicago Lights staff, volunteers, and local youth interns produce over 100 kinds of vegetables each growing season from this hitherto derelict property.

The Cabrini-Green farm is thus a vital source of freshly grown, organic produce in a place where walking to the nearest supermarket can entail crossing a dangerous gang boundary. It’s also a training ground for local youth in need of practical job skills; a demonstration site for sustainable agricultural techniques; a place of peace in an area pockmarked by poverty and violence; and a means of reconnecting urban folk to the natural world.

The community garden created by Cool Joliet and the University of Saint Francis (M. Bryson)

Here in Joliet, various groups have jump-started impressive urban agriculture initiatives lately, including the Cool Joliet / USF community garden project on the near West Side, the Joliet Park District’s new organic community garden opening up on McDonough Street on the far West Side; and Pilcher Park’s community/school garden on the East Side.

One remarkable opportunity waiting to bloom sits smack dab in the city’s center: the huge vacant lot located just west of Joliet Township High School’s Central campus and east of Silver Cross Field. Formerly the site of Rendel’s auto-body repair shop, this expansive grassy parcel is now owned by the high school district and has a yet-to-be-determined destiny.

View of the vacant lot owned by JT Central, looking east from the western boundary of the lot toward the high school (M. Bryson)

The school district should think big about what this property could be. One ambitious but exciting option is to create an education-focused urban agriculture enterprise for JT Central students that could start small, but eventually scale up and diversify to achieve educational and social impacts that would be unprecedented within the greater Chicago region.

Imagine students, teachers, and staff just walking outside to the farm next door and doing meaningful physical work growing and harvesting organically produced food. Such projects could be fully integrated with the school’s science, social studies, phys ed, business and health curricula, so that students learn from the ground up the ecological, economic, and social benefits of urban agriculture. Imagine their fresh local produce being donated to local food pantries, sold by student entrepreneurs at the Joliet farmers market, and eaten by students in Central’s cafeteria.

I know — it sounds pretty far-fetched. But then again, is it any crazier than believing you can grow food on top of an old basketball court in Cabrini-Green?

This essay was published as “The Revolution of Urban Agriculture” in the 29 March 2012 edition of the Joliet Herald-News. See more pictures of Joliet Central’s open space and the Cool Joliet / USF community garden. Read about the High School for Public Service Youth Farm in Brooklyn, NY, which began in 2010 as a partnership with the nonprofit urban ag organization, bk farmyards.

“Living Downstream” Documentary Feature Screens at RU on April 20th

In anticipation of Earth Day, Roosevelt University will host a screening on Friday, April 20th, of the acclaimed environmental documentary feature film, Living Downstream, which features the life and work of writer, ecologist, and environmental activist Sandra Steingraber. This event is free and open to the public. As explained on the film’s website:

This poetic film follows Sandra during one pivotal year as she travels across North America, working to break the silence about cancer and its environmental links. After a routine cancer screening, Sandra receives some worrying results and is thrust into a period of medical uncertainty. Thus, we begin two journeys with Sandra: her private struggles with cancer and her public quest to bring attention to the urgent human rights issue of cancer prevention.

But Sandra is not the only one who is on a journey—the chemicals against which she is fighting are also on the move. We follow these invisible toxins as they migrate to some of the most beautiful places in North America. We see how these chemicals enter our bodies and how, once inside, scientists believe they may be working to cause cancer.

Several experts in the fields of toxicology and cancer research make important cameo appearances in the film, highlighting their own findings on two pervasive chemicals: atrazine, one of the most widely used herbicides in the world, and the industrial compounds, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Their work further illuminates the significant connection between a healthy environment and human health.

At once Sandra’s personal journey and her scientific exploration, Living Downstream is a powerful reminder of the intimate connection between the health of our bodies and the health of our air, land, and water.

Date:  Friday, April 20th, 2012
Time:  6:00-8:30pm
Place:  Roosevelt University, Chicago Campus, Auditorium Building (430 S. Michigan Ave)
Room:  Congress Lounge (2nd floor)

This event is free and open to the public. A discussion with RU faculty will follow the screening, and refreshments will be available. Sponsored by the Sustainability Studies Program in the College of Professional Studies at Roosevelt University.

RSVP to Professor Mike Bryson at mbryson@roosevelt.edu / 312-281-3148.

Environmental Studies Scholarship Info

Here is a great scholarship opportunity I just got via email. The deadline is coming up fast, but the application may not be all that involved. Check it out! — Mike

The Friends of Volo Bog offer
Two $1,000 Scholarships to Environmental Studies Students
Application Deadline:  March 31st, 2012
Find application at www.FriendsofVoloBog.org

The Friends of Volo Bog are offering an Entering College scholarship and a Continuing College scholarship, for $1,000 each, to outstanding students interested in pursuing an environmental career.

To be eligible for the Entering College scholarship the applicant must reside in Lake, McHenry, Kane, Cook, DuPage, Kendall, or Will County, attend a high school in one of these counties, have a minimum B average for the first three years, and plan to attend an accredited college or university.  The applicant should be planning to enter a career directly related to preserving the environment.

To be eligible for the Continuing College scholarship the applicant must be currently enrolled in an accredited college or university, pursing a degree directly related to preserving the environment, have a permanent residence in Lake, McHenry, Kane, Cook, DuPage, Kendall, or Will County, have graduated from a high school from one of these counties with a minimum B average, and currently hold a minimum B average in their college studies.

Applications are due by March 31st each year for the following school year to begin in fall. Application packets are available at www.FriendsofVoloBog.org and also for pick up at Volo Bog State Natural Area, 28478 W. Brandenburg Road, Ingleside, IL.

Volo Bog State Natural Area is an Illinois Department of Natural Resources site located on Brandenburg Road in Ingleside, Illinois, west of Highway 12 between State Highway 120 and 134. Friends of Volo Bog is a not-for-profit 501c3 membership organization, dedicated to the preservation of the area’s natural heritage, maintenance of site facilities, and advancement of educational programming at Volo Bog State Natural Area.

Summer Internships: Sustainability in Chicago’s Communities

This semester my SUST 210 honors class is working on a community-based research project in collaboration with the Chicago non-profit organization, The Institute for Cultural Affairs, based in Uptown. Along with students from several other Chicago colleges and universities, we are researching and mapping sustainability initiatives throughout each of the city’s 77 community areas. The work continues this summer, so the ICA is seeking motivated and interested students for 40 unpaid internships on this tremendous and valuable city-wide project. Here are the details! — Mike Bryson

Application deadline now extended to Monday, April 16, 2012

The ICA Summer Internship Program, “Accelerate 77” is an opportunity for undergrad and graduate students to participate in preparations for the September 15, 2012 Share Fair event that will highlight, connect and accelerate local sustainability initiatives at the community level throughout Chicago neighborhoods. During the 2011-2012 academic school year, 180 students from six Chicago-based universities have participated in the first phase of the Accelerate 77 project by doing fieldwork in 54 of the 77 Chicago community areas. This summer, students will have the opportunity to take the Accelerate 77 project to the next level developing their skill-set through hands-on community based projects and acquiring skill in facilitation and enabling participatory group processes.

This spring ICA will be interviewing for 40 intern positions – flexing the program timetable between June and August.  The positions range from:

*  community documentation and engagement of sustainable initiatives,
*  designing and planning the September 15th event celebrating the 231 initiatives (three initiatives from each of the 77 communities),
*  marketing and public relations for the Accelerate 77 project and share fair event, and
*  website support for the community documentation, interchange and post-event collaboration.

Out of the 40 intern positions, the program will offer eight students an intensive leadership development course that will provide hands-on experience of co-leading teams in collaboration with eight ICA resource guides.

More information on leadership development opportunities and the Accelerate 77 project can be found at this page on the ICA website.

Application deadline: Monday, April 9, 2012

For more information, check out these documents:

Nina Winn
ICA Program Coordinator
nwinn@ica-usa.org
Office:  773.769.6363, ext 301

Karen Snyder
ICA Volunteer and RU alum
snyder@consultmillennia.com
Home office: 773.506.2551
Cell: 773.758.2551

World Water Day Is March 22

This Thursday, March 22nd, is World Water Day — an annual event sponsored by the United Nations since 1992 to focus attention on the critical importance of freshwater and to advocate for the sustainable management of freshwater resources.

This Thursday at Roosevelt University’s Schaumburg Campus from 2-6pm, students and faculty of the Sustainability Studies (SUST) Program will have a table display in the main hallway where you can learn more about World Water Day, take a Taste Test of bottled vs tap water, go on a Water Resources Hike around the campus, and check out the Water in Schaumburg research project conducted by SUST 220 Water students this past fall. Hope to see you there!

For more information, contact Prof. Mike Bryson at mbryson@roosevelt.edu or at 847.619-8735.

Speak Your Mind on RU’s New Website

Roosevelt has just launched a new media campaign called “Speak Your Mind” that features a highly interactive “microsite” that’s really more like an online discussion course than a typical media ad. In fact, it’s better than a regular course, because it’s designed so that viewers can post comments and engage in dialogue with several RU professors on a range of critical topics of the day, from housing to education to media to biotechnology to the environment to the state of the US economy.

Each of the topics within the site features one of several RU academic departments. The Sustainability Studies program here at RU is, I’m happy to report, one of those featured programs — and yours truly is the discussion monitor on the topic of Green Jobs: the green economy’s present state and future prospects. I encourage folks to visit the site, look around, and post a comment if you are so moved. Those of you who are SUST majors or who have taken a SUST class at RU will likely have very valuable thoughts and questions to contribute! Your participation can help connect RU to the general public in this important social media outreach campaign.

Biking to Work in Joliet, IL

Since I’m discussing transportation this week in my SUST 210 Sustainable Future online class at Roosevelt University, I thought it most appropriate to use my bike to commute to work. Some of our sources I’m analyzing with my students speak directly to the need for active/alternative transportation modes, and how such systems relate to urban design and community structure.

I am not a “hard core” cyclist who buys fancy gear and takes 100-mile rides through the countryside; nor am I an urban bike renegade who likes to blow through any intersection at as high a speed as possible. I consider myself very much an average-ability and safety-minded cyclist of modest endurance, someone who doesn’t mind putting on warm clothes and biking to the train station or to a local destination in cold weather or a drizzle. In the Netherlands, I would be in good company; here in the US, that probably puts me within 0.5% of Americans.

My first decision yesterday: should I really take my bike, or should I drive? I had to go to Joliet’s Barnes and Noble bookstore way out by the Louis Joliet Westfield Mall, a destination located about 6 miles from my house and on a very busy road (US Route 30). Then I had to go to the public library to work, then back home. It would be a long trip, and I had a lot to do that day. Did I really have time for all that? And what about carrying my notes and computer on my back, plus the presents I would be purchasing at the bookstore?

It was cold, 28 degrees F, but sunny and not too windy — and I decided to try it. After all, biking would keep my GHG emissions down to zero, plus I’d get some much-needed February exercise. The extra time from biking would be more than repaid by the free workout I’d be getting! My rationalization complete, I tapped into my somewhat extensive personal knowledge of safe Joliet street/trail routes, and headed off. Here is a map of the route I took.

Note the out-of-the-way path I took to get to the bookstore, a 6.1 mile trip that could’ve been much shorter had I traveled directly. But Route 30 is a busy and dangerous road, and I prefer to avoid hi-traffic streets. There are no bike lanes on Rt. 30. In fact, there are no bike lanes anywhere in Joliet. So I took a quiet E-W residential route to a N-S rails-to-trails path on Joliet’s West Side, then headed north along the trail. That linked up with another trail, one within the Will County Forest Preserve’s Rock Run Marsh. Consequently, even though I was in a highly developed part of Joliet’s West Side, much of my ride was bucolic, and all of it was safe and quiet, except for crossing busy arterial streets. This is a route I’ve ridden with my kids many times. You can see water, trees, cattails, and prairie grasses; you can hear and see a lot of birds. It’s a nice way to travel.

That left me with a short job on Route 30 to get to the bookstore, which actually was OK. Once there, I was able to relax while listening to Miles Davis on the store radio, surrounded by books (itself a delight), and with good access to a bathroom and the BN cafe, which has free wi-fi. Life was good!

My ride to the public library was shorter, but on a busy N-S road on Joliet’s West Side. Lots of room for cars, but no dedicated bike lane here. As noted above, there no bike lanes in the city of Joliet, a real flaw in the town’s transportation infrastructure. Despite this deficiency, parts of town are very bike-able because of a plethora of quiet residential streets, some of which cut through town in helpful ways. However, this network is very limited, and known only to people who seek out such knowledge.

Back to my journey to the library: Essington Road had a good sidewalk, so I used that as well as the street to head south to my destination. Upon reading the Rock Run Forest Preserve trailhead, I left the street and rode a paved trail the rest of the way to the library, which sits on the eastern edge of the preserve and has beautiful views of its woods and marshlands. It is always uplifting to my spirits to come here, and sometimes I take a short break from working at the library to take a stroll in the woods or along the marsh’s edge.

So, my commute to work was about 9.5 miles, according to Google maps (which lets you map out bike routes, by the way), plus the 3.5 miles home after my library session (13 miles total). My total commuting time for this workday was 30min + 18min + 20min for the three legs of the commute, or 68min total. This compares most favorably with my door-to-door commute to the Schaumburg Campus (120min in the car) or my train commute to downtown Chicago (1hr 45min each way, door-to-door, or 3.5 hours total).

Guess how many bikes I saw on my cycling route yesterday? None. I did see several people walking or working in their yards, and all of us greeted each other with a pleasant hello. (I don’t do that while driving; do you?) I also saw hundreds of cars. I can’t recall if I saw a PACE bus, which probably means I didn’t.

Undergrad Research Opportunities at the Field Museum

This summer the Field Museum of Natural History here in the Chicago is offering several Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) fellowships for summer research in the biological sciences. This is a unique and valuable opportunity to do paid (!) summer research in one of the most important natural history research institutions in the world. Please see this website for more information, and note the upcoming deadline of March 15th for applications.

As an undergraduate biology major at Illinois Wesleyan University in the 1980s, I applied for and received two REU summer fellowships. Not only did I earn a generous 3-month stipend and learn a tremendous amount about how science is done in the lab and out in the field, but as I look back on those experiences I now realize how much they helped shape my future career direction and attitudes about science and nature.

For more information beyond the above, please contact Sustainability Studies Prof. Julian Kerbis Peterhans (jkerbis@fieldmuseum.org and 312-665-7758), who has taught SUST 330 Biodiversity and BIOL Museum Internship classes at the FMNH. Minority and non-traditional students are particularly encouraged to apply.

A Good Week for Chicago

Environmental news is rarely good. More often it’s disconcerting . . . depressing . . . or highly disturbing. This week, it’s a breath of fresh air (literally) to get some phenomenal news about the near-future prospects for air and water resources here in Chicago.

As Michael Hawthorne, environmental reporter for the Chicago Tribune, writes this week, the notorious and heavily-polluting Fisk and Crawford coal-powered generating stations will be shut down earlier than projected by their owner, Midwest Generation. While the economic infeasibility of upgrading the plant’s pollution controls is the direct reason, there is no doubt that continued pressure from local environmental activists in the Little Village and Pilsen neighborhoods as well as from key Chicago politicians (including Joe Moore of the 49th ward and Mayor Emanuel) were key drivers in this decision.

As if that weren’t cause enough for joy, we also learn today that the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District has significantly reduced the projected expense of implementing final-stage disinfection processes for wastewater effluent that is released into the Chicago Area Waterway System. Installing these technologies will be done in budget rather than with a Cook County tax hike.

Read Hawthorne’s excellent report on what has become a hot water topic in Chicago, and find out why a change of leadership is sometimes all it takes to get things moving in a dramatically different, and positive, direction.