Thank you Capital One!

As part of Capital One's One Week service project, volunteers served at Arthur Ashe Charter School. The group did a variety of gardening activities including sowing seeds. However, the biggest accomplishment was the 4 beautiful benches the Capital One group built. The benches even have wheels to help with transport!

A big thank you for all of your support, we hope to see you again next year! 

Capital One has helped create a serene space for our teachers - check out one of our Ashe teachers is enjoying our new bench, and the beautiful Ashe garden during her lunch break. 

Anti-Obesity Campaign Launches at LHA

                         
New Orleans struggles with one of the highest rates of child obesity in the United States. The above video highlights programs in New Orleans fighting to change bad habits. Programs include an increase in school gardens where students learn about where food comes from, incentives for public schools to provide healthy food options, and First Lady Michelle Obama's campaign to promote physical activity.

At the Dreamkeeper Garden, FirstLine Lead Garden Educator, Amy and students from Langston Hughes Academy learn how to grow broccoli and the benefits of eating fruits and vegetables.

As part of our continued mission to serve the whole child, FirstLine Schools offers programs such as Edible Schoolyard New Orleans (ESYNOLA). A signature program of FirstLine Schools, ESYNOLA involves students and the school community in growing, harvesting, preparing and enjoying food together as a means of awakening their senses, cultivating an environment that promotes a sense of pride and responsibility for our land and natural resources, and developing a love of fresh, seasonal foods. The mission of ESY NOLA is to imporve the long-term well-being of our students, families and school community.

Additionally, as part of our continued mission to serve the whole child, FirstLine Schools has adopted Comprehensive School Wellness as one of its major initiatives for the 2012-2013 school year. Comprehensive School Wellness aims to address six key areas of school wellness: (1) Mindset, Policies, Systems, & Assessments, (2) School Food: Nutrition, Access, & Education, (3) Physical Safety, (4) Physical Fitness, (5) Mental & Emotional Health, and (6) Risky Behavior Prevention.

Over 400 Volunteers Participated in Service Day at Ashe

volunteers preparing for the day

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "Life's most persistent and urgent question is: 'What are you doing for others?'"

volunteers planting trees

Monday, January 21, 2013 was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a day of celebration, reflection and service.  While the rest of the country was hard at work, ESYNOLA got in the spirit with a huge Open Garden / Service Day at Arthur Ashe Charter School! FirstLine staff and families joined us at Ashe planting trees, building beds, and constructing outdoor furniture.  ESY Community Partners, including Up2Us: Coach Across America, City Year, Hands on New Orleans, NOKP, and more hosted activities and offered support.

creating art for the garden

Volunteers dug holes, shoveled up sod, placed edging, and yes… even danced The Wobble. By the end, Ashe had a couple dozen new trees, four giant garden beds ready to be planted, and four new tables with benches.

volunteers hard at work

Thanks to our dedicated parents, great staff, and wonderful community partners for helping make Arthur Ashe one of the best schools in New Orleans.

Join us for the MLK Day of Service

Please join us on Monday, January 21 from 8am to 2pm for the MLK Day of Service.  Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "Life's most persistent and urgent question is: 'What are you doing for others?'"

Each year, Americans across the country answer that question by coming together on the King Holiday to serve their neighbors and communities.

The MLK Day of Service is a part of United We Serve, the President's national call to service initiative. It calls for Americans from all walks of life to work together to provide solutions to our most pressing national problems.

Arthur Ashe Charter School will be the site of a BIG volunteer day this year on Martin Luther King Jr. Day!

We want you and your family to be a part of this very special day as we work together to make our school and community beautiful.  Food, music, tools, and fun provided!

Here are some of the volunteer activities that will be available on Monday:

·  Digging holes for trees

·  Planting trees, both perimeter and citrus

·  Prepping and edging beneficial border for living fence

·  Prepping for future outdoor gathering space

·  Moving the compost pile

·  Painting raised garden boxes

·  Building picnic tables and benches

·  Fitness Stations for kids from 9am-1pm

·  Info tables from community partners including NOKP with info on programming at Ashe

·  Lunch provided for all volunteers (around 1:30pm

We look forward to seeing you there!!  Questions?  Ask Kelly!

Ashe Students Embrace Composting...and then some

"...And now we have Program Manager Rahn Broady reporting from the field at Arthur Ashe...Rahn?

"Yes, ESY NOLA staff members have now confirmed that students at Arthur Ashe are going rogue with composting. Last week one of our recently-hired Compost CEOs appeared on the scene of an escalating conflict and settled the fact that indeed, lettuce can be composted.

Compost CEO hard at work

"This morning Chef Educator Emily Hagar reported that one of the compost executives appeared earlier this week with a serious look on his face, asking for an apron.  He darted into the cafe as the Chef Educator trailed behind reminding him Ashe only composts at lunch, not at breakfast.  Reportedly he waved her off, reassuring her he wanted to compost, and commenced to dump smaller buckets from each cafeteria table into the larger one.  About halfway through the job, he happened on a small bucket that contained the crust of some breakfast pizza. "You've GOTTA be kiddin' me," he said with distaste.  Isolating the crust into a garbage can, he proceeded to complete his mission, which is to build the soil for his one-acre garden.  Back to you, Alisha..."

Alisha Johnson is the Development Manager and Rahn Broady is the Program Manager for Edible Schoolyard NOLA

Jason: Food Day!

Healthy Food at Green Charter School

Food. We eat it everyday, but many young people have little understanding about where it comes from or how it came to be. We at FirstLine Schools believe you are what you eat, so let’s eat smart!

In November 2010, Congress designated October as National Farm to School Month as a means to improve child nutrition, support local economies and educate children about the origins of food.  Food Day – held on October 24 – was created by the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest to advocate for a healthier and more sustainable food system.

Edible Schoolyard NOLA targeted middle and high school students, staff, and families at all five FirstLine campuses to teach them about important issues like:

•  Promoting safer, healthier diets
• Supporting sustainable and organic farms
• Reducing hunger
• Reforming factory farms to protect the environment and animals
• Supporting fair working conditions for food and farm workers

Learning about composting at Dibert

Green Charter School held the event in their café with over 10 activity stations, starring a variety of community partners, such as: Tulane’s Center for Culinary Medicine, Market Umbrella, and The New Orleans Food Co-op. There were food samples, including a highly popular African Peanut Stew served by ESY NOLA’s Budding Entrepreneurs team.

Students from grades 6-8 toured the room with their families. There were games, demonstrations, mini-lectures, and even prizes. Kelly Miranda – ESYNOLA’s Volunteer, Family, and Community Partnerships Coordinator – leapt onto a table partway through the event and excitedly held a raffle for one brand new 5-piece spice jar set and a couple very useful looking garden tool pouches.

John Dibert Community School set up their tables outside for the school’s 8^th graders, perfect for a sunny fall day. Each station explained one step of the food cycle: growing, distributing, and waste management. As an introduction, Jess Bloomer – Lead Garden Teacher at Green – taught participants about pollinators by offering a taste sampler of local honey. Elsewhere, scholars tried to pinpoint the origins of the produce in front of them by attaching stickers to a map, showing them how far some of our food travels to arrive on our plate. Some wrinkled their noses at the mini-compost pile and live worms set up by ESY’s Program Manager, Rahn Broady.

Blubber burgers at Ashe

Over at Arthur Ashe Charter School, Ruth Korsten – one of ESY’s Volunteer Coordinators through the LA Delta Service Corps – gave her account: 

Kate McDonald from Second Harvest was showing Ms. Sivi Domango – Ashe’s Director – and Ashe 5th graders how much fat (using real lard... ugh) was in their favorite burger chain's product.  It made quite an impact, and one boy I asked said it was his favorite station. That's saying a lot because the parfait stops are always the biggest crowd pleasers.

With the odds very much in her favor, one mother won the raffle prize and she was super excited to take home a pressure cooker!  Several teachers and school support staff also stopped by to see what all the excitement was about.

Enjoying Food Day at LHA

Amy Zelwegger, the Lead Garden Teacher for ESY at Langston Hughes Academy, had the following to say: 

With over 100 participants, Food Day was a smashing success here at LHA! Our 6th graders were eager and ready to learn about where our food comes from, sample some tasty treats, and share take-home info with parents and family. Food Day at LHA consisted of 8 tables, with four tables provided with help of our community partners Hollygrove Farm and Market, New Orleans Children’s Museum, Sankofa Farmer’s Market, School Health Connection and Rethink New Orleans. We learned about the production rows at LHA and the FSA program that will be rolling out in December. We learned about the importance of hydration, eating fruits, and why it's vitally important to support our local farmers. Food Day was a great reminder at how our scholars LOVE to learn about FOOD!!!

Learning about Plant Starts at Clark Prep

 The scholars at Clark Prep High School also participated. Kathleen Duffy, the VISTA Outreach Coordinator placed there, gave this report: 

FOOD DAY!!! Loved it. The turnout was fantastic at Clark, including students, faculty and staff. Students tried the smoothies and breakfast at both ESY tables. They loved Grow Dat, where many are now applying for a Spring/Summer 2013 program. Donnica Conway got some love at her Cooking Up Literacy At Home table, which offered scholars a great recipe book (a favorite was Green Eggs and Ham). Food Day was a very successful health and wellness initiative that will hopefully spark a consistently strong turnout at similar future events. ESYNOLA did a fantastic job coordinating community partners to attend, and Clark loved it! Students talked to me about it today, showed me the plants they won, and we discussed working at Grow Dat.

Whether participants walked away with a snack, a prize, or just a fun learning experience, there was no shortage of smiles throughout the day.

Jason Lacoste is the AmeriCorps VISTA K-8 Outreach Coordinator for FirstLine Schools.  

Jason: Arthur Ashe Community Day

The rebirth of Arthur Ashe Charter School in its new building in Gentilly has been profound. Their success was made clear at Ashe’s first Community Day this past Saturday.

The Community Day event drew in a crowd of volunteers (families, students, staff and community members), who were divided into two jobs. Half shelved nearly 3,000 books in Ashe’s gorgeous new library. Another contingent transformed the garden area from a pile of soil into a grassy lawn streaked with prepared vegetable beds and spaces for aquatic gardens. Young scholars joined the effort happily, digging with shovels and building sandcastles in their spare time.

In another part of the school, families were painting a mural – no artistic experience necessary. Christine Richtofen, Ashe’s art teacher, provided small slabs of wood and paints, and assigned each painter a swatch of the mural to complete. Soon, the squares of wood will be hung on a wall to reveal a collaboratively created portrait of Arthur Ashe. For those who wanted to be painted on, Ashe teachers decorated the faces of passing youth with whiskers and spirals and little pictures of all kinds.

When much of the work was done, the community gathered in the cafeteria for a hamburger lunch with a side of cookies. Looking through the full-length windows, we could see a determined set of landscapers finishing the garden project.

Of course, Community Day was only the beginning. The Ashe family has a lot to look forward to this year. Chef April Neujean, our Health & Wellness Manager, is busy promoting various Wellness initiatives happening at Ashe and across the FirstLine network. Make sure to attend one of the free cooking or exercise classes, or even join the Wellness Committee at your school (or network)!

Finally, every parent at Arthur Ashe Charter School should consider involvement in our parent organization, the Ashe Aces. Last night’s first meeting was a huge success with standing room only. Sivi Domango, Ashe’s co-director, gave a rousing presentation on the power of parents to impact student success. Parents, we depend on you! The Aces will meet on the third Wednesday of every month, so we look forward to seeing you all.

Jason Lacoste is the AmeriCorps VISTA K-8 Outreach Coordinator for FirstLine Schools.  

ESY NOLA and Arthur Ashe Charter School

The new Arthur Ashe Charter School

Over 200 Lutheran teen volunteers from across the country gathered at the new Arthur Ashe Charter School site, 1456 Gardena Drive, on July 18 to help transform the facade with a colorful array of florals, sunflowers and cypress trees, in anticipation of the first day of school, August 6.  Ashe officially moved  over the summer, from its temporary Uptown location, to its permanent, newly constructed building on the Bienville Elementary site in the Lake Park neighborhood of Gentilly. The new site includes a garden-science classroom, a teaching kitchen, a fully-equipped cafeteria kitchen, and plans for several themed gardens, arches and pathways,  and a one-acre production garden. 

Volunteers on July 18, 2012

ESY NOLA will continue to provide school-wide tastings, Food ABC's with the Kindergarten classes, as well as these new programs:

• Daytime parent cooking classes
• Student kitchen classes 
• Student garden classes
• Open garden days
• Junior kitchen and garden apprentice classes
• Junior service learners 
• Family Food Nights

Keep checking back here for more information on these great new programs at Ashe!

Ashe's New Building

As you probably know, Arthur Ashe Charter School is moving to its permanent location in the Lake Park section of Gentilly for the 2012-2013 school year.  The new building is close to completion and we thought we'd share a few pictures with you (click on each picture to see a larger version).  These pictures were taken on March 29, 2012.

Interior Courtyard of the School
will be a grassy play area

School Cafeteria
check out that natural light!

The Teaching Kitchen is taking shape!

The Library is going to be beautiful!

We're all really looking forward to the
Garden Science Classroom

Middle School Hallway (lockers!)

The back of the school when looking
across Oak Park

Upcoming FirstLine Events

Here are a few easy (and fun!) ways to help support our mission:

• Thursday, April 5, 6pm-10pm at d.b.a. - Dan Forman memorial fundraiser for Friends of Louisiana Outdoor Outreach Program (LOOP).  More about the benefit for this wonderful organization that benefits FirstLine students (as well as many other students across the city), can be found here.  
• Saturday, April 7, 10am-5pm at Green Charter School - ESY NOLA Plant Sale!  We will be selling seasonably appropriate vegetable starts, annual flowers, and perennial herbs and ornamentals. Support the five school gardens of The Edible Schoolyard New Orleans as you prepare your garden for the spring! 
• Saturday, April 7, 12pm-5pm at the Freret Street Festival - the Budding Entrepreneurs will be selling hand-made jewelry and canned items, plants, produce, and the official Edible Schoolyard NOLA "How's it Growing?" t-shirts for only $15.
• Thursday, April 19, 6:30pm-9:30pm at Corks n Canvas - Painting With a Purpose: Langston Hughes Academy.  Langston Hughes Academy believes in helping all of our scholars reach their dreams. Some of our scholars dream of writing as a way to communicate, but require assistive technology due to their exceptionalities. We are raising money to purchase ipads with word processing and other educational programs so that our scholars can share their thoughts with the world!

We hope you will join us at one (or more!) of these upcoming events!

Greater New Orleans Foundation holds Education Panel at LHA

Session Attendees

On Tuesday, March 6 the Greater New Orleans Foundation held a two hour session entitled: "Understanding New Orleans One ISSUE at a Time: Education".  The panel portion of this session was held at Langston Hughes Academy (LHA).  School Director, Mark Martin, welcomed the group of over 70 people in the library.

Panelists

The panelists included: Michael Stone, New Schools for New Orleans (NSNO) - Panel Moderator; Makiyah Moody, Leading Educators; Andre Perry, Ph.D., Institute for Quality and Equity in Education, Loyola University New Orleans; Michael Ripski, Ph.D, Achievement Network; and Stevona Rogers, Teach for America New Orleans.  The panel covered a wide range of issues affecting education in New Orleans.

Following the panel, seven LHA scholars took the attendees on a brief tour of the Dreamkeeper Garden.

We were thrilled and honored to host this panel and thank the Greater New Orleans Foundation for including us!

LHA Scholar in the Dreamkeeper Garden

Session attendees enjoying their tour
of the Dreamkeeper Garden

Article Highlights FirstLine Healthy Cafeteria Food

The Lens, an online investigative reporting news organization, recently wrote an article highlighting FirstLine's work in healthy cafeteria food, as well as our general belief in health and wellness.  This work has been done thanks to the hard work of both ESY NOLA and FirstLine staff, with ESY NOLA taking the lead.  You can find the article here.

Here's a quote from the article:

Neujean and Vliet say they’ve been one of Sodexo’s first clients to push for healthier, local food options that exceed federal requirements. For instance, FirstLine serves only hot breakfasts at its schools, even though cold cereal and milk is enough to satisfy the government. In those hot breakfasts, condiments full of high-fructose corn syrup, like sticky-sweet pancake syrup, are banned. Students instead are encouraged to eat fruit, powdered sugar or jam with their hotcakes. Their hot lunches come complete with a salad bar, and students have the opportunity of choosing fresh, Louisiana-grown satsumas, fresh plums, raisins and other fruits as sides to the lunch menu.

We're very proud of the work that we've done to bring healthier food choices to our students.  We hope you enjoy this article!

LAPCS Videos Feature FirstLine Teachers, Board Member & School

The Louisiana Association of Public Charter Schools is launching a series of videos (Straight A's: Charter School Autonomy, Accountability & Access) this week and they feature some familiar FirstLine faces!

The videos are intended to answer some common questions about Charter Schools:

• How do community members get involved inside the classroom?
• In what ways do charter school teachers use innovative approaches? 
• What is the most rewarding part of being a charter school board member? 

You will see quite a few shots of Samuel J. Green Charter School throughout all of the videos, you'll meet a couple of our awesome teachers (in two of the videos), see some great info about Edible Schoolyard New Orleans (in the Community video), and meet our Board Chair (in the Board video).


Check them out here:

LAPCS for Parents from FatHappy Media on Vimeo.



LAPCS for Teachers from FatHappy Media on Vimeo.



LAPCS for Communities from FatHappy Media on Vimeo.



LAPCS for Board Members from FatHappy Media on Vimeo.


LAPCS for Legislators from FatHappy Media on Vimeo.

Clark Prep and Grow Dat Youth Farm

In February, three Clark Prep seniors and four students from the NET @ Clark will begin a 20-week program at Grow Dat Youth Farms.  Grow Dat provides job and leadership experience to New Orleans high school students through the work of growing food.  The seven Clark Prep students will join their peers from De La Salle, New Orleans Charter and Mathematics High School and Warren Easton High School to grow fruits and vegetables at Grow Dat’s four-acre plot in City Park. The students will donate a portion of the produce to local food pantries, and they will sell the rest at local farmer’s markets. 

Grow Dat will help prepare Clark Prep students for college, careers and life by improving their teamwork, public speaking, and problem solving skills.  The participants will also benefit from regular workshops from Tulane faculty about sustainable agriculture, economics and food systems. 

Clark Prep’s partnership with Grow Dat continues FirstLine Schools’ commitment to improving the well being of students and the community through its partnership with Edible Schoolyard New Orleans.

LHA hosts its first Open Garden Day!

You are invited to the very first
Open Garden Day
at The Dreamkeeper Garden of Langston Hughes Academy
3519 Trafalgar St.
New Orleans, LA 70119

THIS Saturday October 1, 2011
10:00-1:00pm

Edible Fun for the Whole Family!

Please join us for a day of weeding, planting, bed building, and more as we prepare The Dreamkeeper Garden for the fall!

All volunteers are welcome and asked to bring a water bottle and wear comfortable gardening clothes.

Children under 12 must be accompanied by an adult.  
           

Special October Garden Guests:

Junior League of New Orleans
ReLeaf of Tulane School of Medicine
TIDES of Tulane University
New Orleans Outreach


Interested in volunteering at The Dreamkeeper Garden of Langston Hughes Academy on a regular basis?
Please contact Kelly Regan kelly@esynola.org to learn more about our volunteer opportunities.