Fall 2022 saw the St. Charles Street Urban Community Garden & Orchard “energized” by 85 enthusiastic Freshmen from Energy Institute High School (EIHS). ECOTONE World happily partnered with the Teachers of Cohort 1 Team at EIHS to coordinate a project experience targeting student-led team goals effecting issues of food security, sustainability and development.
Functioning as an outdoor classroom the garden proved to be a valuable asset for tangible food education once again. Benefiting from an opportunity to actually put their hands in the dirt, participating EIHS students gained resourceful insight while developing life skills and the practicality of a three phased community give-back!
Energy Institute High School is a magnet high school in the Third Ward area in Houston, Texas. It is a part of the Houston Independent School District and is the first high school in the United States that focuses on the energy industry.
PHASE I – Hands-On: Garden Refresh and Redevelopment
The St. Charles Street Urban Community Garden & Orchard bustled with 9th Graders excited for the opportunity to activate their plans!
Phase II – Pitch Presentation Time
Students divided into research teams tasked with problem solving issues presented by urban communities existing in food deserts. Specifically focusing on the Third Ward community of Houston, TX their research considered community demographics and sustainable solutions. Lastly student teams conducted pitch presentations for architectural designs of a garden bed with a construction budget restriction of $50. Each team presented before a panel of judges ultimately vying for the opportunity to have their design selected. ECOTONE World’s founder Chef Tarsha attended the presentation day at EIHS and was onsite to overview plans and provide feedback on each team’s pitch. The winning team would move on to construct their garden bed in the final stage of this project.
Phase III – Construction
On December 9, 2022 , ushered by their Engineering Teacher (“Ms. G”), the victorious Cohort 1 winning student team was Group 16 a/k/a “Fighting Food Deserts” [team members: Saul Ortuno, Caroline Rueff, Kayden Schumacher, and Isaac Hernandez] came back to St. Charles Street Urban Community Garden & Orchard to build out their WINNING design! Enjoying 4 hours of their regular school day in the open air classroom of the Garden, the students described the experience as relaxing even though they were hard at work. All said and done, their efforts produced an interesting and ergonomically inspired garden bed planted with Lantana (a transplant from another area in the garden) and seeds to sprout flowers like Black Eyed Susan, Butterfly Milkweed and Cone flower. The motivation is to welcome pollinators and give the orchard a colorful boost!
As a gift to the Garden’s collection of Public Art the winning team delivered vibrant new hand-painted artwork renditions crafted by all of the various student teams participating in this project. EIHS Freshmen artwork will be on display at the Garden in the Spring of 2023 and is sure to spark community enjoyment and added beautification!
Job well done to the Teaching Staff, Administrators and the STUDENTS of EIHS!!! We look forward to other opportunities to engage your student body.
