The Greensboro Children's Museum broke ground on its Edible Schoolyard last week.
The groundbreaking on Thursday included an appearance by Alice Waters, the founder of Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley, Calif., and the Edible Schoolyard program, which is run by the Chez Panisse Foundation.
"You are going to change the way people look at food in a big, big way," Waters told a crowd at the groundbreaking.
Waters is one of the most famous chefs in the country and a tireless advocate for local food. Her appearance attracted dozens of fans who came to meet her and get an autograph. A young girl brought Waters some homemade preserves. One woman was so overwhelmed with tears of joy that she could hardly speak to ask Waters to sign a book.
In 1995, Waters founded the first Edible Schoolyard at a public middle school in Berkeley to pass along her love of fresh food to children. Since then, affiliate programs have begun in New Orleans and San Francisco. The Greensboro program will be only the fourth Edible Schoolyard in the country and the first associated with a museum.
Waters said that the program has been slow to expand because it looks for "people who want to go all the way" to create a seed-to-table experience for children.
Betsy Grant, the CEO of the children's museum, said that the museum contacted the Chez Panisse Foundation after it identified health and wellness initiatives as key points in its strategic planning.
Although the official groundbreaking took place last week, the museum already has been growing vegetables on part of what will be a half-acre space outside of the museum at 220 N. Church St.
Soon, the museum will be busy renovating a barn, demolishing a storage building and preparing the land for the Edible Schoolyard's official opening in the spring.
The project calls for organic planting beds, indoor and outdoor classrooms and kitchens, ramadas and arbors, and a greenhouse, chicken coop and composting and recycling station.
Once the program is up and running, visitors will be able to not only tour the garden but also get their hands dirty. "Even casual visitors will be able to do some weeding, maybe some harvesting. There might be a tasting," Grant said.
The museum also plans after-school kids programs, weekend family programs and summer camps.
Grant said that the museum already has raised more than $750,000, and that about $250,000 more is needed. Waters' visit to Greensboro included a $250-a-person dinner on Friday night featuring local foods.
The museum also received a grant to study the effect of the Edible Schoolyard on the community. "This is fun, and it's a children museum, but we're real serious about having an impact," Grant said.
"The final result," she said, "will be changing families' behavior and attitudes about life, so they grow up eating healthy and not getting diabetes and heart disease, so they sit down together at the table and talk to each other."
Waters said, "We're talking about teaching children the values they need to live a beautiful life."
mhastings@wsjournal.com
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