Mayahuel Edible Garden Project

Farm To School program seeks to address the longstanding inequity in fresh food access and disappearing knowledge and appreciation of cultural, indigenous farming practices in the Douglas Arizona area. Mayahuel Edible Garden Project has begun addressing food inequity in Douglas by planning, implementing, and evaluating a food production operation that integrates locally grown products into the meal program of a K-8 school serving over 200 youth. Amistades and the Douglas community are implementing the Mayahuel Edible Garden Club as an after-school activity for a local charter school. 24% of the served students currently receive free and/or reduced breakfast and lunch. The edible garden project team is developing a farm-to-school program that follows the guidelines of the USDA Farm-to-School Planning Toolkit and incorporates concepts from other culturally relevant gardening models. Ensuing diverse voices and the use of culturally responsive approaches is at the center of the work conducted by Amistades. The after-school gardening club meets twice a week with an average of 25-30 kids attending and learning about gardening and life skills. Using MPCII as the convening body ensures that members of the edible garden project team will draw from all key Douglas community sectors and spheres of influence, and will represent diversity in gender, ethnicity, age, geographic area, and socioeconomic status. Farm to School is creating protective factors and teaching life skills while having fun and building resiliency with future leaders.