This week the second graders focused on the continuing challenges that farmworkers face (low wages, immigration policy, access to healthcare, and, during wildfire season and the COVID pandemic, access to PPE, governmental economic relief, and vaccination). We made a shift this year in how we talk about change. Individual choices and actions matter (a lot!), but structural problems require systemic solutions. By continuing to educate themselves about the world around them, by being ready to vote when they turn 18, and by getting involved in policy, today’s second graders are our hope for a better, more just tomorrow.
In terms of finding a tangible action we can all do right now, we talked about how knowing where your food comes from and how it’s grown and harvested goes a long way towards supporting a thriving, ethical food system. Our lesson was a stir-fry featuring produce from Eatwell Farm, Hodo tofu, and brown rice from Chico Rice. I’ve been a member of Eatwell for 14 years, and every week I receive their CSA (community supported agriculture) box, pasture-raised eggs, and have access to products from their local food producer friends, which is how I came to be able to pick up everything I needed for this week’s class from another member’s apartment just a few blocks from my own.
Lorraine Walker, the farmer/owner at Eatwell, sent a photo of the Eatwell crew planting seed potatoes for the students to see, and in class we learned all the names of the farmworkers and what each person is in charge of (e.g. tractor, chickens, pack house, weeding the orchard). We’ve learned that the majority of farmworkers in California are Mexican, so it’s not surprising to learn that the crew at Eatwell are from Mexico. Many of them are family and a few work on the farm only seasonally, helping out during the late spring/summer/early fall when farm production is at its height.
While we ate together, we listened to the poet Jordan Chaney read his poem Conflict. The second graders are currently studying poetry with Ms. Reynolds and Ms. Butler. Poetry, along with music, are our school’s civil rights themes for the second grade curriculum. In his toast to migrant laborers, Chaney evokes the beauty, struggle, and dissonance of our food system and reminds that every single person in the food chain matters.
