‘This is legacy work’: DeLaSalle Learning Farm keeps growing as students trade sweat for spoils of the soil

An empty one-acre field next to DeLaSalle High School is blooming into an urban learning farm that will nourish both the students and the neighboring Troost Corridor community.

Volunteers from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City carry frames for planting beds at DeLaSalle Learning Farm; photo by Nikki Overfelt Chifalu, Startland News

The DeLaSalle Learning Farm — an initiative in progress thanks to a partnership between the charter school near 37th and Troost and Cornerstones of Care, Build Trybe, Kansas City Community Gardens, The Giving Grove, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City — is expected to provide students with vocational skills, while eventually bringing fresh produce to families in a food desert, shared organizers.

“This project is important for the school and the community because we have generations of young men and women raised in the city where they’ve been divorced from their roots,” noted Theo Bunch, director of Build Trybe. “All of us come from a heritage of agriculture. All of us come from a deep connection to the earth.”

After breaking ground last fall and adding raised garden beds in the winter, DeLaSalle students were joined just in time for Earth Day by staff members from partner organizations and 42 volunteers from Blue KC to plant fruit trees and shrubs in the orchard and vegetables in the garden beds.

“When we start to drill down and we look at the Jackson County area, almost 20% of people are food insecure in this area,” said Rebecca Anderson, director of community health at Blue KC. “We are in what is called a food desert, which means there’s corner stores, but there’s not a lot of grocery stores. So people don’t have access to fruits and vegetables, and that really is the brainchild behind this entire concept, is to be able to give produce back to a neighborhood where it doesn’t exist.”

Theo Bunch, director of Build Trybe, directs students at the DeLaSalle Learning Farm; photo by Nikki Overfelt Chifalu, Startland News

The learning farm will also have a goat hutch and a chicken coop. Students have worked with University of Kansas architecture students to design the space, noted Sean Stalling, executive director of DeLaSalle.

“The community needs to know that our students are investing in their community,” he continued. “Our students who are doing this are going to come back in 10 years and they’re going to see a farm and they’re gonna say, ‘I did that.’ Then they’re gonna have their little brothers, their little sisters, maybe even their children, come and continue that.”

“So this is legacy work,” he added.

DeLaSalle students experiment with a pedal-powered blender bike smoothie maker; photo by Nikki Overfelt Chifalu, Startland News

It’s important for kids to know how food gets to their plates, shared Chanel Griffin, manager of Seed to Plate for Build Trybe.

“A lot of times when you ask kids, ‘Where does food come from?’ she explained. “They say the grocery store or they just have no idea. So once kids know where their food comes from, and then also how to grow their own food, they will be more self-sustainable.”

Bunch said the urban farm is a beautiful vehicle for teaching the students trade skills.

“I can take vocational training and I can bring it into this environment,” he explained. “And through that, we can teach them how to build raised beds. That’s woodworking. We can teach them how to plant and grow. That’s landscaping, horticulture. We can take that food and cook with it. That’s health, nutrition, and culinary arts.”

“They’re involved every step of the way,” added Anderson. “And if you look at sustainability of a project like this, how do you sustain this within neighborhoods? You get the people in the community involved and that is the students. Ultimately, for the students, this could become a career forum.”

Volunteers and students at the DeLaSalle Learning Farm project outside DeLaSalle High School; photo by Nikki Overfelt Chifalu, Startland News

Plenty of studies show being around plants and animals helps with lifting moods, Bunch noted, and with students, it makes them more engaged.

“Sometimes in the classroom, you have young men and women, they turn to page 12 and get ready for a test, they retain nothing,” he continued. “You do the same lessons — but out here with their hands in the soil — and it’s amazing how fast they learn and how quickly they start picking up these concepts.”

DeLaSalle sophomore Cass Townsend said being outside and getting to do hands-on activities is exciting.

“I think it’s amazing that we can help not only ourselves, but the people we surround ourselves with,” she added. “It will bring more people into our community if we give out more and I feel like it’s just a great opportunity to learn and grow.”