Surgeon General Visits Green Charter

Our Green Charter scholars got a great surprise last Tuesday when the Acting Surgeon General of the United States, Boris D. Lushniak M.D., stopped by to give a presentation. Dr. Lushniak spoke to our eighth grade classes about the importance of active living, healthy diet, refraining from smoking and being leaders in their communities.

Dr. Lushniak’s talk was followed by a question and answer session with our eighth grade class. The students asked thoughtful questions about how Dr. Lushniak got to his position, obstacles he faced and what he was doing to stop the spread of disease. Dr. Lushniak was insightful, energetic and inspiring while answering the scholar’s questions.

After his visit with the eighth grade class, Dr. Lushniak took a tour through Green’s edible schoolyard and stopped in on a gardening class. He took time to speak with the scholars in the gardening class and answer questions. Moving from the gardening class, Dr. Lushniak also stopped in on one of our cooking classes to take in the unique program offered by FirstLine Schools.

We would like to send a big shout-out to our Green Charter scholars and staff for being gracious hosts for our guest. We would also like to send a big shout-out to Dr. Lashniak for taking the time out of his busy schedule to visit with our scholars and provide words of encouragement to our staff for all their wonderful work.

Edible Schoolyard New Orleans (ESYNOLA) is a signature program of FirstLine Schools, to learn more about ESYNOLA and FirstLine Schools please visit www.firstlineschools.org, follow us on twitter and instagram: @firstlineNOLA and like us on Facebook www.facebook.com/firstlinenola  

Jesse Short is a Louisiana Delta Service Corps member serving at FirstLine Schools as the Technology and Social Media Coordinator.

Hat Day for Kay!

On Friday October 24, 2014, two FirstLine schools: John Dibert Community School at Phillis Wheatley and Samuel J. Green Charter School, participated in “Hat Day for Kay.” Kay is a 3rd grader at Dibert at Wheatley who was diagnosed with leukemia last fall. Since her diagnosis, Kay has been undergoing treatment for leukemia and has been in and out of the hospital.In honor of Kay and in support of her family, The Dibert at Wheatley team organized "Hat Day for Kay". Scholars, teachers and other supporters, donated money in exchange for wearing crazy hats. Over $2K was raised! This was the second event held to support Kay. Last school year's fundraiser, Orange Day, was a huge success as well.

FirstLine Schools would like to send a shout out to The Dibert at Wheatley scholars and staff, as well as our Green Charter Scholars and staff, for rallying around Kay. We would also like to send a shout out to everyone who donated money toward the event. Finally, we want to send a HUGE shout out to Kay, for inspiring us and reminding us of the incredible strength of the human spirit! We look forward to seeing you back in class, Kay!

 To get involved and learn more about Kay please visit www.gofundme.com/9gocto

For more information about FirstLine Schools visit our website www.firstlineschools.org, follow us on Twitter and Instagram @firstlineNOLA and “like” us on Facebook www.facebook.com/firstlinenola

Jesse Short is a Louisiana Delta Service Corps member serving at FirstLine Schools as the Technology and Social Media Coordinator.

Attention, Edible Schoolyard New Orleans has a very important Shout Out!

Deborah Underwood leading an activity on Watermelon Day for Green

We would like to give a SHOUT OUT to all our interns and volunteers, for instilling environmental stewardship in our children; 

a SHOUT OUT to our interns and volunteers, for increasing our students’ academic success and upping the chances they'll go to college; 

a SHOUT OUT to our interns and volunteers, for maintaining safe, playful, and productive school gardens that show our city’s children the respect and beauty they deserve; 

and a SHOUT OUT to our interns and volunteers, for fighting the racial, economic, and social injustice in New Orleans one student, one seed, and one hour at a time.

Allow us to contextualize.

Zuri Obi shoveling compost at Ashe

This past calendar year, ESYNOLA offered 3,000 garden and kitchen classes for K-12 graders and hosted over 70 special events. Those are really high numbers, and it’s almost unfathomable considering that all of our classes involve experiential learning, which means small groups, hands-on activities, and lots of personal attention. This kind of intimate approach to education is how we teach kids and families about the ecology of Louisiana, where food comes from and how to prepare it, and how to live healthy lives.

Liz Mervosh participating in Iron Chef at Green

But our staff is not huge, and the communities we serve are expanding. As FirstLine Schools has soared in academic achievement, it’s grown from two to five schools (700 to 2,800 students) in the past five years. The support of our 500+ volunteers and interns in classes, on Open Garden Days, and at special events is the reason ESYNOLA has been able to keep up with this growth while maintaining the high level of personalized attention we give our students and our five school gardens.

So we are not exaggerating when we say that ESYNOLA could not do what we do without the passion, expertise, and generosity of our interns and volunteers.