Kimbal Musk's Learning Gardens headed to metro Detroit area schools
Rain gardens help reduce water pollution, mosquito breeding Jennifer Dixon/DFP
Kimbal Musk is bringing Big Green, the national nonprofit organization he co-founded with the goal of building school gardens and inspiring healthier eating, to Detroit area schools.
The expansion, announced today, was made possible through corporate and individual donors providing $2 million, almost half, of the $5 million needed to build Musk’s Learning Gardens at area schools. Corporate donors include Grand Rapids-based Gordon Food Service and individual donors like Carole Ilitch have donated according to the news release.
“Access to real food is one of the key challenges facing our society. Unless we curb our addiction to processed, calorie rich, nutrient poor foods and replace them with real food, we will continue to suffer from obesity-related diseases that kill more people than smoking or gun violence,” said Kimbal Musk, in a news release.
“Detroit is a resilient city with passionate and dedicated residents who care about the future of their kids and schools. There is inspiring work happening in urban agriculture, community gardening, and school gardens in Detroit; and we are proud to join this collective effort to impact even more kids."
The remaining cost needed to establish the gardens will be raised through fundraising. Those fundraising efforts will be lead by metro Detroit resident, Ken Elkins who Big Green also named Detroit Regional Director.
Detroit is the seventh city earmarked for the Learning Gardens. Nationwide, there are 450 Learning Gardens in Chicago, Denver, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Memphis and Pittsburgh.
Musk’s Big Green (formerly the Kitchen Community) expects to set up 100 Learning Gardens at metro Detroit area schools. They expect to begin the first garden in April. About $50,000 is needed to build each garden.
“It is the goal for this to be in every school in America and built into the standard of what should be on every schools playground," Kimbal Musk said.
Learning Gardens, Musk said, not only teach kids the science about growing foods, but has food literacy programs that teach many subjects from science to reading and even history lessons.
He says his first focus is in schools with "high-need and underserved students."
Schools can learn more and begin applying for a Learning Garden at http://biggreen.org/detroit.
Learning Gardens will be awarded based on a number of factors, including how the garden will be used, student demographics and location. Musk says forming a Garden Team who will lead the garden planning, installation, and maintenance processes is also a requirement.
The gardens are described as “dynamic outdoor classrooms and productive edible gardens” at www.thekitchencommunity.org.
"We help kids dig into their education, thrive with real, nutritious foods and healthy habits, and become active participants in strengthening their communities," Musk said.
It was about six years ago when Musk co-founded the non-profit organization to build Learning Gardens, he said, designed to "help get kids excited about real food."
Through his Colorado restaurant The Kitchen, he already supported several school gardens.
"I was astonished to see how excited the kids were to plant, harvest, and eat vegetables that they had grown," Musk said. "I learned first-hand that school gardens are associated with the most positive changes in students’ fruit and vegetable intake."
Seeing the impact the gardens made in his community, Musk wanted to branch out to communities across the nation.
Last spring, Musk toured the Detroit area to learn about Detroit's food scene and see if his Learning Gardens were a fit. He met with Betti Wiggins, former executive director of the office of school nutrition for the Detroit Public Schools Community District. Wiggins was also part of the Detroit School Garden Collaborative, she has since left Detroit Public Schools. Musk visited the Charles Drew Transition Center, which has a student-operated food program. Students harvest vegetables in the school’s garden and outdoor hoop house .
Musk's goal is "real food for everyone" because, he said "American children are being fed processed, nutrient-poor food that leaves them starving and obese at the same time."
While Musk made his fortune through the Internet when he and brother Elon sold their company Zip2, he said he's always had a passion for food. After selling Zip2 to Compaq Computer he invested in other tech companies including Elon's PayPal.
He decided to become a trained chef, moved to New York and enrolled at the French Culinary Institute. Musk opened the Kitchen in 2004 in Boulder, Colorado with then wife Jen Lewin and partner Hugo Matheson.
In 2010, while tubing on a ski hill, the inner tube flipped and Musk broke his neck. "I was paralyzed, laying horizontally, for two months, and I just decided that I was going to pursue my passion for food and scale businesses that matter," he said.
Although each school will have their own unique gardens, the Learning Gardens feature modular, raised beds that also have seating and timed irrigation systems.
Musks' goal is for the Learning Gardens to reach "every kid in all 100,000 schools in America because every child deserves to thrive in healthy environments that connect them to real food."
“There’s something profoundly magical watching a child, even as an adult, pull a carrot out the ground. I did this with my children," Musk said.
Contact Susan Selasky at 313-222-6872 or email@example.com. Follow @SusanMariecooks on Twitter.
Schools can apply for a Learning Garden at http://biggreen.org/detroit.