Orchard program fruitful for students
NOVATO ADVANCE
Common Vision partners with Novato school to plant fruit trees
What child doesn’t love playing in the dirt?
At Lynwood Elementary School the common childhood fondness of getting dirty is being fostered into a lesson on growing your own food and helping out your fellow man.
Last week the Lynwood Elementary School Parent-Teacher Association partnered with California-based Common Vision to assist second- through fifth-graders in planting a fruit orchard on campus, adding to the school’s garden area.
“This is the very first fruit orchard in the Novato Unified School District, and hopefully the first of many,” said Gretchen Schubeck, Lynwood PTA president. “Schools are such a wonderful place to educate children about the importance of eating healthy food.”
See more...Students, nonprofit team up to plant fruit orchard at NU
THE UNION
A group of Nevada Union High School students traded their books for shovels on Monday as they joined the nonprofit Common Vision in planting 25 fruit trees on campus.
The orchard, planted on one-third of an acre, will be part of an outdoor classroom for the school’s Green Academy, which offers students an interdisciplinary curriculum focused around outdoor education, environmental education and activism.
See more...Orchard teaches Pittsburg students basics of growing sustainable food
EAST BAY TIMES
By Trine Gallegos
Willow Cove Elementary students really dig their school -- figuratively and literally.
The Pittsburg group recently moved outside the class and into the fresh air to plant a fruit tree orchard.The nonprofit Common Vision and Pittsburg Unified's nutrition services department are turning an empty area into a grove of trees. See more...Students help create orchards at Lompoc-area schools
LOMPOC RECORD
About 30 fruit trees were planted at Lompoc-area elementary schools this week, thanks to collaboration between the schools and the Common Vision organization.
Representatives of Common Vision, a nonprofit group dedicated to creating and sustaining orchards at schools around the state, worked with students at Hapgood Elementary School on Tuesday to plant 10 trees on that campus.
On Wednesday, they joined with students at Manzanita Public Charter School to plant 20 trees there.
See more...Planting Seeds for the Future
THE ALTERNATIVE DAILY
Obesity rates among American children and adolescents continue to soar, with more than twice the number of children and over four times the number of adolescents weighing in as obese, as opposed to children from 30 years ago.
The non-profit organization Common Vision is dedicated to improving the status of the roughly 6.5 million children who live in the midst of food deserts and are more susceptible to obesity. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), food deserts are areas in which at least 33 percent of the population lives more than a mile from a large grocery store or supermarket. These areas are often in lower income areas where transportation is difficult to access, and residents tend to suffer from more medical complications than those in other areas.
Common Vision combats food deserts in California by working with schools to plant free orchards that provide students with fresh food. Its recent campaign launched via Indiegogo has exceeded its goals of $60,000 that will enable the organization to engage 15,000 more kids in planting 1,000 barren lots with fruit trees that are ripe — and free — for picking.
See more...Give a School an Orchard, Teach Kids to Eat Right for a Lifetime
TAKEPART
A nonprofit organization is working to plant 1,000 orchards to help low-income students make healthier food choices.
As many as 6.5 million American children live in neighborhoods where fresh fruits and vegetables are hard to come by, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In these food deserts, as they’re known, a greasy slice of pizza is easier found than a nutritious salad. To help improve the situation, one nonprofit is setting out to help improve such kids’ eating habits by planting organic fruit orchards around low-income public schools.
Modern-day Johnny Appleseeds announce ambitious program to plant orchards at 1000 California public schools
TRIPLE PUNDIT
Ten years ago a small grassroots group of nutritional justice activists from Northern California retrofitted a pair of buses to run on recycled vegetable oil and solar power and set south on a mission to plant orchards at low-income public schools throughout the Golden State.
Since their humble beginnings, Common Vision has planted over 6,500 fruit trees at hundreds of schools from San Diego to Sacramento, attracted seed money from corporate leaders like Organic Valley, Nutiva and Clif Bar, and even won an Emmy Award for a PBS television documentary about their one-of-a-kind traveling tree-planting troupe, best known to students as Fruit Tree Tour.
Now, with a little help from multi-Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter Jason Mraz and farming cooperative Organic Valley, the all-volunteer army of modern-day Johnny Appleseeds is announcing its most ambitious goal yet— orchards in the ground at 1,000 California public schools by 2025.
See more...A Common Vision Comes to Fruition: Fruit-Filled Orchards at 1,000 California Public Schools
ORGANIC AUTHORITY
by Abbie Stutzer
Common Vision is the type of community-oriented group every food and environment lover wants in their state. The organization has humble roots and has grown significantly since its inception a decade ago. At its start, Common Vision dedicated itself to planting orchards at low-income schools throughout California. To achieve that goal, the band of Northern Californian activists jumped into their pair of retrofitted buses (that ran on recycled vegetable oil and solar power) to hoof it to the schools. Since then, Common Vision has planted more than 6,500 fruit trees at hundreds of California schools that span from San Diego to Sacramento.
See more...El Monte Elementary students get lesson in green education, growing cycle
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
By Jennifer Shaw
They dig a three-foot by two-foot hole in some soil, augmented with manure and compost. A fruit tree is adjusted into its new home, as first-graders name the sapling Isabella Pom Pom Roly Poly.
She is among two dozen trees planted by the traveling band of Common Vision volunteers who venture up and down the state in their vegetable oil-fueled, habitable bus, bringing a day of fun and fresh fruit awareness to students at predominantly low-income schools in California.
See more...Around Lakeside-Lakeside students plant fruit trees with help from Common Vision
THE EAST COUNTY CALIFORNIAN
by Betty McMillen
With the help of Common Vision, a team of young adults who travel around the county teaching students about planting trees, Tierra Del Sol Middle School sixth graders learned all about fruit trees, from how to plant them, taking care of them, and how pollination works.
The 216 students were from the various science classes, all eager to learn about creating a fruit tree orchard. For some it was a once in a lifetime experience, for others they said they had some experience with helping with their grandparents fruit trees.
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