\u201cIf you build it, they will come.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You may remember this line from the movie, \u201cField of Dreams.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DeLaSalle Education Center in the Troost Corridor of Kansas City, Mo. has its own field of dreams, as nearly an acre of well-maintained land sits empty on school grounds. But that\u2019s about to change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn five years, you will see a full-fledged farm,\u201d said Sean Stalling, Executive Director at DeLaSalle Education Center, which is the only alternative charter high school in Missouri dedicated to serving at-promise urban core students. \u201cYou\u2019ll see a farmers market, and you\u2019ll see DeLaSalle become what I think schools are: Cornerstones of a community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thanks to a partnership between Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City, behavioral and mental health nonprofit Cornerstones of Care, and its vocational program Build Trybe, that grassy field will transform into a learning farm to help DeLaSalle Education Center become a new center for urban agriculture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou can expect chicken coups, rabbit hutches, produce, fruit trees, orchards and hoop houses,\u201d said Theo Bunch, Director of Build Trybe. \u201cWe are working with a really amazing group of DeLaSalle high schoolers who are going to create a vision for this field where it becomes a learning farm center that will produce food for the Kansas City community, and most importantly, for the students themselves, for their families, for their kitchens and for their school.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited to see the students run the farm!\u201d said Chanel Griffin, Farm and Culinary Manager at Build Trybe. \u201cI\u2019m excited to see them take ownership of it and for the students to be excited about the things that come out of the farm.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been waiting for that whole backyard to change for a while now,\u201d said Ji\u2019Ziah Anderson, student at DeLaSalle High School. \u201cI love gardens, too. I got my garden love from my mom because she really likes to grow plants. I\u2019m pretty excited.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOver the years of me being here at DeLaSalle, they\u2019ve presented a lot of new opportunities to us, and this is really exciting because this is a lot of hands-on activity,\u201d said Ny\u2019Asiah Thompson, student at DeLaSalle High School. \u201cWe get to do things we\u2019ve never done before, so that\u2019s really exciting. It\u2019s an opportunity for us to make future career goals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur students and our community expressed a need that we have experiential learning,\u201d Stalling said. \u201cWe had a lot of land, and we decided that this acre of land would be better served addressing some of the societal needs that our kids face. That\u2019s food insecurities, healthy living, and having access to healthy food.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s the next chapter for DeLaSalle Education Center and a first step in the school\u2019s long-term vision of becoming one of the leading urban farming schools in Kansas City. The initiative will help address food insecurity, as one in seven people in the Kansas City region is at risk of hunger<\/a>. Access to nutritious food is critical to health and resilience. 60% of U.S. adults<\/a> live with one or more diet-related chronic health conditions, underscoring the potential for increased access to healthy foods to improve health outcomes nationwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOne of the end goals is that the produce will go back to the community, which is super important because we know that health outcomes are largely driven by things that are related to our social drivers of health, and one of those things is actually food,\u201d said Rebecca Anderson, Director of Community Health at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City. \u201cSo, we are super excited to walk alongside these students and learn from them and watch this process unfold.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to have strawberries, carrots, you name it,\u201d said Ji\u2019Ziah Anderson. \u201cWe\u2019re going to make it fun and entertaining for the school because not a lot of schools have that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPeople go through things and may be homeless,\u201d said Kei\u2019Myah Jackson, student at DeLaSalle High School. \u201cWe can give out free fruit and vegetables.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is the start of a journey that\u2019s going to be going on for the next 10, 20, 30 years if we do our job right,\u201d Bunch said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMost importantly for me, it sends a strong message that Kansas City cares about kids,\u201d Stalling said. \u201cThe students at DeLaSalle are being embraced, and their ideas are being promoted so their thoughts and their genius are coming to light. I\u2019m just glad being a small vehicle to making that happen and find great partners like Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City, Build Trybe, and Cornerstones of Care to make that happen. So, it\u2019s overwhelming and it feels really good to have this happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t\tWas this helpful?<\/h3>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t