Volume 4, Issue 3, Summer 2011

About HEAT:

The Health and Environ-mental Awareness Training Center, HEAT, provides youth ages 14-18 with edu-cation and training in gar-dening, landscaping, nutri-tion, and the culinary arts. By providing a paid intern-ship, youth are drawn into the BYA family to then par-ticipate in all of our wrap-around services. We are dedicated to supporting the innate strength and poten-tial in each of our youth. Youth interns are hired to work after school each day and during the summer to do landscape maintenance in two Berkeley city parks and maintain a half acre of organic vegetable gardens which feed BYA and the West Berkeley community.

Newsletter of

Health & Environmental

Awareness Training Center Berkeley Youth Alternatives

Title art by Jasmine Shelton, youth

INSIDE:

What’s Growing On. . . . . . . . . ..p. 3

Why Landscape is important.. . p .4

Express Yourself. . . . . . . .. . . . .p. 5

YOUTH FOOD BILL OF RIGHTS: Garden youth hold signs with their demands of the

food system. We held a garden grown and cooked meal as a solidarity supper while over

100 youth at the National Rooted in Community Conference(www.rootedincommunity.org)

in Philadelphia drafted a Youth Food Bill of Rights (www.youthfoodbillofrights.com).

We the BYA youth de-

mand of our food sys-

tem. . .

No artificial flavors or

colors

Animals would be raised

with care and not over-

produced

I demand healthy afforda-

ble food for all

I want healthy fruits and

vegetables

BYA Landscape

Program Saved

for Another Year!

Over $3000

Donated by

Generous Individ-

uals to Garden

Program

(see articles p. 6)

2

1255 Allston Way

Berkeley, California 94702

Main Office: 510-845-9010, administration@byaonline.org

HEAT Phone: 510-845-9010 x222, garden 223

Fax: 510-849-1421

E-mail: heat@byaonline.org, garden@byaonline.org

Web address: www.byaonline.org

Berkeley Youth Alternatives

How to support HEAT:

VOLUNTEER: Drop-in garden volunteer work

hours every Friday 10-1, or by appointment. Work in the garden, work alongside youth interns in the afternoon, do repairs, tutor, and more. For garden volunteering, contact Kim Allen, Garden Program Manager, at (510) 845-9010 x223, kallen@byaonline.org and for other BYA opportu-nities, email vmcbride@byaonline.org

DONATE: See the list above or donate mon-

ey—make checks payable to “Berkeley Youth Al-ternatives” with “HEAT” in the memo line. You can also donate on our website, and indicate that for HEAT, Garden, or Landscape. All donations are tax-deductible. Please call first to donate non-monetary items.

Berkeley Youth Alternatives is a community based non-profit organ-

ization. Our vision is to provide a secure and nurturing environment for

all the children, youth, and families of our community. We desire to pro-

mote the freedom to develop individual skills and visions of the world.

Our mission is to help children, youth, and their families address issues

and problems via Prevention by reaching youth before their problems

become crises, and via Intervention through the provision of support

services to youth entangled in the juvenile justice system. BYA helps to

build capacity within individuals to reach their innate potential.

Thank you for your

generous contributions this quarter!

All volunteers

UCB interns Mackenzy Keller, Michelle Falcone, Rachel Horn, and Alana Fichman

Bay Area Dietetic Association

Eve Restaurant

The Bread Workshop

The Barbara and Donald Jonas Family Fund

Clif Bar Foundation

The Ecology Center

Beebo Thurman and the Berkeley Community

Garden Collaborative

City of Berkeley Parks Department

Alameda County Probation Department

Alameda County Office of Education

Alameda County Behavioral Health Care Services Agency

Theodore Rosenkranz Fund

Alameda County Health Pipeline Partnership

Tell Me When to Grow

A Special Thanks to everyone who donated through

our Start Some Good Campaign:

Linda Frankel, Margaret Norman, Bonnie Sedlmayr Emerson, Sarah

Prager, Phyllis and Elliot Prager, Katie Prager, Tonya Johnston, Leland &

Patricia Johnston, Shannon Gessner, Marianne Balfe, Dave Allen, Caitlin

Christensen, Allison Kelley, Corinne Onetto, Crunch Fox, Ofra Fisher,

Beebo Thurman, Ryan Van Lenning, David and Phyllis Warner, Ken Al-

len, Erica Etelson, Linda Franklin, Lendri Purcell, Noriko Itakura, Lisa

Chen, Max Cadji, Gloria Pass, Fiona Lundy

3

Strawberries

Spinach

Broccoli

Tomatoes

Basil

Cilantro

Cucumbers

Artichokes

Potatoes

Summer

squash

Winter

squash

Carrots

Collards

Kale

Chard

Parsley

Basil

Bok choi

Tatsoi

Lemons

Beets

Peaches

Apples

Flowers

What’s Growing On…

Tell Me When to Grow

What’s Growing in the BYA Gardens

What we did this summer. . .

Cooking:

Potato leek soup, beets, leeks, and garden

grown shiitakes, Pesto and pasta, carrot

bread, stir-fry and rice, Dairy Day (made

yoghurt, butter, cheese, and bread), clay

oven pizza, solar oven cooking

Projects:

Cutting boards, solar dehydrator, shade

structure floor, weekly harvests for Farm

Fresh Choice and community veggie

boxes, Bread Workshop, monthly food

giveaway, Youth Food Bill of Rights, har-

vesting honey

Field Trips:

Urban Adamah, Slide Ranch, UC Santa

Cruz Farm, Merrit College Horticulture,

Waterside Workshops, Brave New Voic-

es poetry slam

Visitors:

Farm Fresh Choice youth, Urban Ada-

mah Fellows, UC Berkeley Education

class students, parents

Speakers:

Todd Walker (coroner/coach) spoke on

death and our bodies, street violence

Diana Treister of the Museum of Toler-

ance in LA: spoke on bullying and toler-

ance. “Your talk was very inspiring

[showing] that we each have a voice and

should put use to it.”

James Gordon and Herb Cain from City

of Berkeley Parks spoke on the land-

scape profession

Summer Weekly Garden Themes/ Lessons:

Personal Wellness

The Story of Stuff, the Story of our Food

Food Systems/ Food Justice

Taking a Stand and Using our Voice

Oppression, Respect, and Allies

4

SUMMER OUTINGS Jamil Nassirruddin, 17

Over the course of BYA’s garden program this summer, there has been a plethora of fun field trips, both

fun and educational. When we went to Slide Ranch in Marin for an overnight camping trip, we learned

how to milk goats. We were taught how to raise and catch chickens, and live a 100% green lifestyle. In

Santa Cruz we

went to the

Food What!?!

and UC Santa

Cruz Farm and

Garden as a

field trip for

Youth Day and

learned how to

make our own

organic com-

mon household

items. That

field trip

opened our eyes

so that we can

see that there

are bigger farms

and gardens

that need to get

kept up with

more than ours.

Also, we were taught some very useful techniques on growing food, prepping beds, and clearing beds.

Although there were many more field trips, these were the two that had the biggest impact on us interns.

Urban Adamah

By Seaquins Young, 19

This summer we were fortunate enough to have three adult volunteers, Robin, Eric and Ben, from a lo-

cal farm called Urban Adamah come in every Tuesday to help us out around the garden. It’s always nice

to have some extra sets of hands around, but it was really nice because these volunteers already had gar-

den experience, so there wasn’t much training required.

I’ve been around the garden for nearly three years, yet one of the volunteers, Robin, actually taught me

how to set up irrigation which was something that I’ve been trying to accomplish for some time now.

I’m very thankful for all the work they’ve put in, and I’m glad to have worked with them all summer.

Not only did they just help with general garden tasks, but Ben was so awesome that they’re leaving us

with the gift of running a passive solar hot water system for our harvest sinks so that we can wash our

hands and our dishes with warm water.

Deshawn Dunn holds a chicken at Slide Ranch in Marin County, where we camped overnight.

5 Tell Me When to Grow

As part of the program, the crew members write journal entries as a tool for expres-

sion, reflection, and introspection. Here are some entries. . .

SLIDE RANCH by Deshawn Dunn, 16

What I think I’m going to remember the most is the beach. It showed me a beautiful view of the ocean that I

will always remember, sitting on the rocks watching the waves made me think a lot. Being here is so peaceful.

I can relax here way better than I can in the city. Slide Ranch was a break that I needed. I never knew you

could have so much fun with nature. Now I can say I did a lot of things in one day that most people haven’t.

Jamil Nassirrudin

What I am going to remember from this trip is the wildlife and sounds of nature without the common noises

of the city. Also, this trip has taught me that if you are having fun outside, you really don’t need technology as

much as you would if you were inside not doing anything. I think the best part of the trip was chasing the

chickens and being able to hold them and make them feel comfortable. Besides all the negatives of being here

(like nature urnination, very cold weather, no showers) it was overall great trip and surprisingly enough I would

do it again. Also, next time I’m involved in a sun chant, I would want it to fully work.

Listening to My Heart

Seaquins Young, 19

When I was pregnant was the clearest and loudest that I’ve

ever heard my voice. There were so many people talking to

me trying to convince me of what was right or wrong. Af-

ter taking everything in and weighting the pros and cons of

it all, I realized that all of my thoughts were based on the

opinions of others. So, finally I closed everything and eve-

ryone out and just listened to my heart. It was very difficult

because even then I couldn’t help but to acknowledge what

others might think. It was my body, my baby, and my deci-

sions. I learned that when you’re trying to listen to your

heart, all you really need to do is close your eyes and let the

words come to you and form on their own, no prompt nec-

essary. Be careful because I’ve come to find that when

you’re trying to focus on listening to your own voice, then

that’s when you’ll be less likely to hear it. In decision mak-

ing, always remember that it’s all about you.

Musings from Stephany Ma, 16—What

does a diverse population mean? Can a soci-

ety function with so much cultures clashing

at once? The U.S. is by far the most diverse

country out there. However, with such a

large amount of cultures living in the same

place, the U.S. is moving on uncharted lands

metaphorically. Once a new culture lands on

U.S. Soil, it slowly becomes more

“Americanized.” Adding or substituting a

culture’s food that took hundreds or thou-

sands of years to develop changed in a mat-

ter of decades to a food that is easy to look

at, and taste somewhat exotic.

Musings from Gabriella Morales,

18—Life is hard, hurtful, nice, great, life

is sunny, life is cloudy. Life is strong,

weak, too much, too little fun and games,

serious business. Life is what you make,

I guess.

6

BYA Landscape Pro-gram Saved for Another Year!

Thanks to wonderful community support and advo-cacy from our Landscape youth and staff, the City of Berkeley renewed our contract for another year! We are very thankful to all of you who helped us in this process. The downside is that we were granted only half of what we had last year, which means we will

not be able to hire as many youth to engage in job training activities through beautifying city parks, and staying off the streets.

We know for a fact that if we provide youth with pos-itive activities after school and during the Summer, they have less chance of getting in trouble with the law, school drop out and teen pregnancy. We will be actively seeking other funds this year to expand and enhance our program, so we can reach as many youth as we can!

In the meantime, you can find us at Strawberry Creek

Park and Grove street park helping to keep the parks

beautiful! Much thanks to our Landscape youth Su-

pervisor Sherman Montgomery for his ongoing guid-

ance and support of our youth!

Over $3000 donated by

generous individuals to

Garden Pro-

gram

In June, out of a need for

financial support for the

garden program, we

launched a fundraising

campaign through start-

somegood.com. Through

the support of over 30

generous individuals, we

raised over $3000. This

has helped extend the

program into the school

year and continue to hire

youth. We have high hopes that grants will

come through in the fall and that we will be

able to continue into the future.

Above, Jamil, Gabby, and Lashee help Urban Adamah

Farm fill their raised beds.