What am I doing?

The second most frequent question people ask me, besides 'you're moving to Arkansas?' is 'what are you going to do for a year in Arkansas?'

After struggling to come up with a satisfying one-line response, I've found a few different sources that can help answer this legitimate question my friends and family keep asking.

From the SustainableYellville Facebook:

...Implementing a comprehensive gardening program for 6-8 graders. What is the Delta Garden Study? - About The Delta Garden Study ...The Delta Garden Study is a $2 million research study funded by the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service designed to prevent childhood obesity and social risk behaviors, and improve academic achievement, in middle school children in the Delta and Central regions of Arkansas.

Our project goals are :
1) To reduce childhood obesity in the state of Arkansas.
2) To decrease social risk behaviors in Middle Schoolers and to improve academic acheivement.
3) To support the Farm to School effort by helping to provide fresh, locally grown produce to schools.

It is the largest, and most scientifically rigorous, school garden research study in the nation, utilizing 10 intervention and 10 demographically pair-matched control schools in a quasi-experimental, nested, pair-matched design including 6-10 teachers per school and over 4,000 students. The primary outcome variables are increased fruit and vegetable intake and increased minutes of physical activity. Secondary variables include reduction in body mass index (BMI) and body fat, increased school bonding, reductions in absenteeism and fighting at school, and improved student grade point averages and benchmark testing scores. Each participating intervention school will receive a 1-acre garden and greenhouse, and study-funded Garden Manager for one full school year. The corresponding study-developed curriculum is aligned to the state educational frameworks for 6th, 7th, and 8th grade science, math, language arts, health, and P.E. The Delta Garden Study is a cooperative research project funded by the United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS), through the Delta Obesity Prevention Research Unit. Additional information about this research unit can be found at www.ars.usda.gov.

They also linked to a great youtube video from the ACHRI explaining the goals of the Delta Garden Study. 

My role in all of this is to work with the Garden Manager, assistant teach the science, physical education, and health curriculum to reach the state mandated learning objectives, and to interface with the community to create a sustainable network of volunteers and supporters of the garden. 

Now that you know what I will be doing, let me give you a quick recap of how I got here. Initially, I heard about the program from Bob Gottlieb, one of my professors at Occidental College who is involved with the UEPI and Farm to School Network. Off the bat, I thought it was an amazing opportunity. I applied for the inaugural cohort, and like most things in my life, wasn't accepted the first time around (See awkward boarding school application process). After spending a year living in Santa Barbara, honing my culinary chops at the school of culinary arts at Santa Barbara City College, I reapplied and as of last week, was accepted to serve in Arkansas. 

I gave notice at my job when I first got the offer. I withdrew from culinary school in the fall. I still have a lot of loose ends to tie up here, and even more things to take care of on the ground in Arkansas. I have just over three weeks before all the new service members meet up in the bay area for our national orientation and training. That's five days long. Then, I have one week to get from the national training to my Arkansas training and really start this crazy adventure.

My goal is to write about my experiences on a daily basis, and post to the blog at least twice a week.