It Takes a Village

Urban Farm DB summary

A chapter recounts the work of Alice Waters, founder and chef of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, who established the Edible Schoolyard Project in 1995, helping to launch a national movement of school gardens amid growing interest in organic food, personal health, and sustainable living. Her roughly one-acre garden and kitchen classroom became a model for thousands of subsequent gardens, including those across Hawaiʻi and other Pacific islands. These gardens included medicinal herbs alongside food crops, once serving as the era's pharmacies. The chapter also notes that school gardens became a sign of patriotism during World Wars I and II, when growing food for local consumption allowed large farms to focus on crops for troops abroad.