Baltimore Community Fellowships
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Photo: Bruce Weller for the Open Society Foundations
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Baltimore, Maryland
2009
Some years ago, Jill Wrigley noticed children in her Irvington neighborhood showing up to Sunday school with chips and sodas for breakfast. As the youngsters grew up, she grew more concerned about their well-being. Wrigley realized her neighborhood had almost no place for kids to get out in nature; so she helped create a Peace Park with a garden where they could grow, pick and eat fresh vegetables.
Wrigley's crusade to improve young people's unhealthy surroundings kicked into high gear after adopting two boys from Ethiopia in 1999. In Ethiopia, the boys had a healthy diet with whole grains, legumes, greens and vegetables, but America corrupted their palates. "I watched with dismay as the longer they were here, the more they preferred salt, sugar and fat in foods," says Wrigley, who is 45. During her sons' middle school years, she began to consider how the school lunchroom was influencing their eating habits—for the worse. In 2005, she authored a report about school lunch reform that ultimately led to the hiring of Tony Geraci, Baltimore schools' new food service director who has garnered national attention for creating Great Kids Farm, a working, educational farm that is the centerpiece of his Farm to Cafeteria initiative.
Today, Wrigley's sons are teenagers, but she also has a five-year-old daughter who loves to cook and eat. She is determined to create an environment for her and other schoolchildren in which they feel the joy of growing their own healthy food and enjoying their harvest.
Through her fellowship, Wrigley is helping to create a holistic schoolyard garden and a nutrition education program at her daughter's school, Baltimore Montessori Public Charter School. The garden is underway with 14 raised beds, 12 earth boxes and a rain garden. They also recently planted a small orchard of plum, fig and pear trees, and blackberry and blueberry bushes. The school has developed a teaching kitchen and hired a food educator who is using "Food is Elementary," a multidisciplinary nutrition and cooking program developed by Dr. Antonia Demas, who also trained Wrigley. "We want this to be a comprehensive garden-to-table program that other schools can replicate," says Wrigley. She also is running a UN Food and Agriculture Organization program called "The Growing Connection," which teaches children to grow their own food and connects them with other youngsters around the world.
Working with the Center for a Livable Future at Johns Hopkins University, Wrigley also will work to expand schoolyard gardens. She also hopes to increase the number of schools offering nutrition education and participating in the Growing Connection program. She plans to make Great Kids Farm the hub of her efforts. "We can and should equip our children to grow, cook and eat food in ways that will sustain their bodies and minds, the communities in which they live and the larger environment for generations," she says.
