Kids at Normandie Elementary watch their garden grow

By: Marissa Lyman

Posted: 12/6/07

Who can tell me something about what they just saw?”

Dyane Pascall stood at the front of a classroom, where scenes from the 2004 documentary “Super Size Me” had been projecting onto the wall. Twenty-two elementary school children sat in desks clustered around the room, digesting what they had just seen.

At the back sat Neelam Sharma, projects director for Community Services Unlimited Inc. In her hands was a stack of surveys about junk-food commercials.

The fifth-graders began discussing how advertisers convince you to buy their products, and Pascall challenged them to remember any commercials for healthy food that they had seen.

“Yoshinoya?”

“No, that’s fast food.”

“Subway?”

“Yeah, ‘Eat Fresh!’”

“Besides Subway…”

It was clear that the multitude of fast food restaurants and corner stores had tainted their minds. But in an effort to change this perception, the kids learned about how advertising affects their food decisions.

It sounded a little advanced for a bunch of fifth-graders, but for these kids at Normandie Avenue Elementary School, just a short drive away from the University Park Campus, such a discussion was the least of their accomplishments.

Since CSU’s program, Growing Healthy, began at Normandie three years ago, the kids have learned the best ways to grow fruits and vegetables, have tended their own organic-food garden and orchard and have run a smoothie stand for their entire school. Their next task will be to create an advertising campaign for CSU’s organic produce stands.

Programs similar to this one came to South Los Angeles as a result of a community food assessment conducted four years ago. The study found that the area was in desperate need of a source of healthy, fresh food and also discovered that local residents wanted to learn how to cook healthy food and grow their own.

“You have nothing,” Sharma said, referring to the overall situation of many of the people in the community. “You know you have to make it happen.”

With the attitude of “the resources will find you,” CSU jumped in to set up programs to address the community’s needs by creating sustainable resources.

What evolved were several organic gardens at Normandie, John Muir Middle School and the Expo Center, as well as two fresh produce stands and a “Veggie Bus,” which was converted to run on used vegetable oil instead of diesel.

One of the produce stands is set up right outside the gates of Normandie, so that parents and kids can get a chance to purchase the fresh produce at a cheap price.

“The program to me is such a highlight of the school,” Normandie principal and USC graduate Gus Ortiz said. “Many of our kids are undernourished and underfed … I know that the parents look forward to having the opportunity to buy healthy veggies.”

In this way, CSU has helped to make fresh organic produce from the school gardens, as well as from area farmers, more accessible to the community. Residents can even sign up to receive an affordable Farm Fresh Produce bag every Thursday afternoon for a month. A variety of other programs offered at the Expo Center for small children, seniors and developmentally disabled adults also help to give back to the community directly.

“The community response has been awesome,” Sharma said. “I get told all the time that what we do is really valuable.”

CSU has been able to reach further into the community by offering service opportunities for youth in the court system through their program called From the Ground Up!

That was how Pascall got involved.

After getting a ticket, the 22-year-old student at Los Angeles City College had the option of either paying it off or doing community service.

“I did 50 hours with CSU, meanwhile going to school for computer science,” Pascall said. “Doing training in garden work and stuff with computers was what drew my attention.”

While training, Pascall learned a variety of skills, such as how to work in the garden and convert the Veggie Bus from guzzling diesel to using vegetable oil. At the end of his service, he spoke with Sharma to see if he could continue as a full-time employee.

“It was a perfect fit,” Pascall said. “After I had gotten the training in the other areas of work, everything came naturally.”

As a member of the CSU staff, Pascall has traveled across the United States to present at several different conferences, including the U.S. Social Forum, the California Nutrition Network and the Los Angeles Community Garden Council.

“[My first conference] was a learning experience,” Pascall said.

Pascall not only presented CSU’s findings at conference workshops; he also wound up reciting some of his poetry to a 6,000-person audience. With lines like “Before I started growing healthy from the ground up / Infatuated with fries and a quarter pounder,” Pascall has been able to use his poetry and rap lyrics to educate others on the importance of healthy food.

Opportunities such as this one have also shifted Pascall’s plans for the future. While he wants to continue working with the community, he can see himself possibly branching out to start up something of his own, such as a for-profit business involving recycling.

“I [see myself] staying on a positive path,” Pascall said. “I see myself doing many different things … Possibly creating a CD with healthy food-oriented songs. I want to blow up to capacity.”

Sharma has also been looking toward the future of CSU.

“The hope is to really build on what we’ve already got,” Sharma said. “But to be honest, it’s difficult.”

Despite all of the success, given the location and nature of the program, there are always a few obstacles that stand in the way of CSU.

“Cash is always an issue … [and] we always have a problem with resources,” Sharma said.

Resources are a big issue not only for CSU, but also for the elementary school as a whole.

Even with Normandie’s participation in other food programs, such as USA Harvest and the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank’s backpack program, Ortiz thinks that there are more resources that should be tapped into.

One of those is USC.

Though “work days” in the gardens bring in Trojan volunteers, it’s the help in other programs that Ortiz feels is most essential. He cited JEP tutors and being a part of the USC Family of Schools program as aid that would be readily accepted.

“We benefit a lot from being around ‘SC,” Ortiz said. “We’re close and yet so far.”

It’s the harsh reality of having a multimillion-dollar institution in your own backyard, while many of the local kids aren’t even getting three balanced meals a day.

“With the gardening program, that brings us a lot closer to a safe haven,” Ortiz said.