Oakland Leaf :: Community Transformation Through Creative Education. After school programs for youth. Art, murals, food gardening, media, music, performance arts, leadership, peace, justice.

Love Cultivating Schoolyards

Oakland Leaf envisions an Oakland community where schoolyards are transformed into dynamic learning environments for students, families, elders, educators, community organizations, and the city as a whole. Love Cultivating Schoolyards began with a school-based program and will grow to become a system-wide movement to improve student and family nutrition through classroom learning, promote school garden and landscape policy at district and city levels and generally promote a sustainable, ecologically-sound way of life.

At the roots of this initiative was the creation of a flagship garden at ASCEND, an east Oakland public school serving 264 students in grades kindergarten through eight. The ASCEND garden engages the support of an existing, well-organized parent community and includes contributions from parents, educators, community members and organizations. Ecology Instructor Matthew Linzner, students, and volunteers work together to cultivate living landscapes that serve a multiplicity of functions: as spaces for creative play; sites of experiments as outdoor, "living lab" classrooms; sources for food production; inspiration for curriculum development and opportunity for application; sanctuaries for after-school adult and adult education programs; and stages for community celebrations.

Our long-term aim is to establish an ecological community that develops an interconnected network of urban gardens to provide a local, secure, and ecological food-source for families while also catalyzing micro-enterprises based on the products yielded from these gardens (such as honey, salsa, and garden crafts) and improving the overall livelihood, health and vitality of east Oakland's densely-gridlocked flatlands communities.



        Inhaling the New Beginning of Life

Click on graphic to view back and front.
Inhaling the New Beginning of Life, is a book written by Love Cultivating Schoolyards 2009 Interns Luis Bahena, Julio Cervantes, Edwin Melgar, Genesis Rodriguez & Garden Manager Matthew Linzner of simple sustainable gardening projects and information. Topics include: Why Plant a Garden?, Seeds, Protecting Your Garden, Harvesting, Composting, Water Conservation, and About LCS Interns. The youth spent three months researching and self producing the work. Each copy comes with a packet of seeds from the ASCEND School garden managed by LCS. The book will be available from the Oakland Leaf office, through our online store, our sites as well as local nurseries. Proceeds will benefit LCS. El libro en español está por venir

PRODUCE STAND AT ASCEND!
In the 2009-10 school year, LCS will continue series of Produce Stands every other week at ASCEND. Boasting the "fruits" of the LCS garden at ASCEND, families, teachers, and students alike can home extremely inexpensive, organically grown produce and herbs. ASCEND fifth grader Garden Sheroes help LCS Coordinator Matthew run the Produce Stands. They also help LCS maintain the composting program at ASCEND to keep the gardens happy and healthy.

A Photograph Goes Here: Define VIA the CSS only!

"A flower from the ghetto knows more about survival than the one from fresh meadows."Talib Kweli, Reflection Eternal

Look for LCS's ASCEND Garden on MySpace:
www.myspace.com/ascendgarden

For more information

For more information about our programs...
phone: (510) 533-5989
fax: (510) 533-8825
or email us here...

Love is an Action