Jun. 18--OAKLAND
Six-year-old Michael Walker kneeled in the middle of the garden, his shoulder-length dreadlocks falling into his face as he gently pinched off the leaves of various plants to use in a salad. Katrina Suprise, a teacher at the Oakland Based Urban Gardens Summer Camp, leaned over and asked the second-grader if he'd ever eaten an onion before.
He shook his head vigorously, his hair flying in all directions.
By the end of the summer, that will probably change.
Oakland Based Urban Gardens, or OBUGS, was created 10 years ago to help introduce gardening and healthy eating to low-income West Oakland children who may be used to eating junk food. Monday marked the first day of the six-week summer day camp that has classes at the Marston Campbell Community Garden next to Lafayette Elementary School, St. Patrick/Prescott Garden and the St. Martin de Porres Garden. Each class has 12 elementary students who meet twice a week, once for gardening and cooking and the other day for field trips to sites across the Bay Area. They also go on a two-night camping trip.
"The summer camp is an opportunity for them to experience things that they would not otherwise experience, to get around the Bay Area a little bit and see the different kinds of nature that exist around here," said Executive Director Michelle Lieberman.
This week's field trip will take students to the swimming lagoon in Don Castro
Regional Park in Hayward.
Lieberman said that taking the children to new areas can help them develop interests.
"That can really broaden their horizons for the future just to know what else exists in this region and to see themselves in the context of the bigger picture," she said.
As the nation deals with rising food costs, the free summer camp provides an opportunity for students to bring home some of the food they grow in the garden.
Jordan Matthews, an 11-year-old fifth grader at St. Martin de Porres School, said he created a garden in his back yard with the help of his friends.
"Planting is in my blood," he said as he shoveled wood chips into a plastic bucket to spread between the plants.
Next to him, 8-year-old Eric Ford ambitiously struck his small shovel into the top of the towering heap of wood chips, struggling to come out with more than a half-shovel's worth. Suprise, 31, took a shovel and showed Ford how to shovel from the bottom of the heap to get more chips.
She said OBUGS helps children develop "good lifestyle skills."
"It turns them into great stewards of the community," she said.
Ten years ago, Dorothy Noyon and Margaret Majua, both 60, started OBUGS, then called the Oakland Butterfly and Urban Gardens, in the Marston garden, simply as something to do as they turned 50.
A decade later, OBUGS has transformed into a multicomponent organization that serves 450 kids with in-school gardening classes, an after-school program and Yo!Bugs, an internship program for teens.
Two years ago, Noyon and Majua turned over the program to Lieberman, though they remain involved as board members and volunteers.
"When you start something, you have to know how to get out of it. It has to have a life of its own," Noyon said as she worked in the Marston garden, getting as dirty as the kids.
The garden houses many plants, such as cilantro, squash and strawberries.
At the end of each class, the kids eat salads made from the food they gathered.
Just minutes after they began eating this day, the students began begging for more of the healthy snack, some with fresh tahini garlic salad dressing still covering their lips.
Lieberman said the absence of academic pressure helps the students have more fun.
"It provides a positive, fun-based place for them to be for part of their summer, where they can make friends," she said.
On July 12, OBUGS will hold its first annual Art & Garden Tour to raise money for the program, which is funded by grants and community organizations.
For details, visit www.obugs.org.
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