The Edible Schoolyard New York at Brooklyn’s P.S. 216 is an official affiliate of the Edible Schoolyard (ESY) program started by renowned chef and organic food activist Alice Waters at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School in Berkeley, California in 1995. The Edible Schoolyard at P.S. 216 will be the first four-season example of the ESY program and the first in New York City. Its goal is to create a space in which the schoolchildren plant, harvest, prepare food and eat together, creating a comprehensive interdisciplinary curriculum, tied into New York State Standards, that connects food systems to academic subjects such as literacy, science, social studies, math, and the arts.
Part of PS216’s existing asphalt-covered yard will be replaced by a quarter acre organic farm, a kitchen classroom and a mobile four-season greenhouse, all combined in a newly designed, self-sustaining educational building. By engaging children and their parents in discussions of nutrition, health, and sustainable planting, the Edible Schoolyard at P.S. 216 will promote healthy eating and a sense of responsibility for the environment.
The award-winning firm WORK Architecture Company is designing the Edible Schoolyard at P.S. 216. Among its recent designs, WORKac was selected by the Museum of Modern Art’s Young Architects Program in 2008 to transform the PS1 Contemporary Art Center in Queens into an urban farming project called Public Farm 1 (PF1).
P.S. 216, the Arturo Toscanini School, is located in Gravesend, Brooklyn. The school currently houses a diverse population of 471 students in grades pre-K through 5, including 16% English Language Learners. P.S. 216 qualifies for 100% free lunch and is a Partnership School with Teacher’s College at Columbia University. The school, whose principal is Ms. Celia Kaplinsky, has achieved a grade “A” in the most recent Department of Education Progress Report.