Today we’d like to introduce you to Bari Applebaum.
So, before we jump into specific questions, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I spent most of my time as a child playing in the dirt alongside my mother and grandmothers, learning about the plants they delicately placed in their garden beds and planters. At the time, these hours spent outside together seemed like a fun way to pass the time, but the skills and mindsets I developed while working have stayed with me. Gardening taught me about the interconnectedness of humans and nature firsthand. Gardening has been a constant in my life – it is something I always come back to. It gives me a sense of peace, calm, and purpose.
At age twelve, I started my first gardening business: Flower Power. I used my savings to buy my own greenhouse and my mom helped me design business cards that I passed out to neighbors and family friends. For six years, I spent my summers with my hands in the dirt, designing and planting flower pots just like the women in my family taught me.
A few years later, I created a vegetable garden for a community center servicing low-income families. I taught elementary schoolers to grow and cook their own food from the produce we grew together — hoping to instill the same passion for nature that I had.
I received my undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin, where I studied psychology, environmental studies, and took pre-med classes. After I graduated, I moved to LA and started teaching Chemistry and Health at Manual Arts High School. As I learned about my students and the challenges they face, I decided that starting a school garden was the best way I knew how to help.
In the garden, students had the opportunity to connect with nature and to play. These experiences gave them relief from the overcrowded classrooms they sat in all day and the heat that emanated from the concrete that filled the rest of the campus. As a class, we discussed how gardening can be a form of resistance to combat the oppressive systems that shape the environment around us. We studied environmental justice and its impact on our physical and mental health. As students began to understand the benefits of our garden, they wanted to share what they learned with their families and other community members. We formed a student group called Chicas Verdes, where students came together to discuss food access, equity, and ways to help the community they lived in. This group evolved into weekly farmer’s markets and workshops for students to learn healthy sustainable habits that they can incorporate into their lives.
Students are the cornerstone of our group – they hold leadership roles and analyze their personal and collective experiences to determine areas of focus for our group. My students are proud to call themselves “Chicas Verdes” and to make a positive impact on the people around them.
Spending time outside with my students has only deepened my appreciation for nature. Watching them see the beauty and interconnectedness of nature has been a profound blessing. When students see the beauty in nature and recognize that they are also a part of nature, they find beauty in themselves. Chicas Verdes has given these young women, and now some young men, the confidence, discipline, and a willingness to push beyond their circumstances. Watching them stagger around with wheelbarrows loaded down with dirt and plants, laughing and bickering and gabbing the whole time, has made me even more determined to build a place where students can take in the beauty around them and within themselves.
When Covid-19 hit, we transitioned our farmers market program to a produce box giveaway to support families in need. With the support of the American Heart Association and Caulipower as our corporate sponsors, we distribute food to approximately 800 families weekly. Chicas Verdes students address real-world problems and become agents of change in their communities.
In the Fall, we’re expanding Chicas Verdes to other sites. The beauty of this program lies in its replicability. By empowering young people to take action, we can develop community-based systems that change life outcomes. Chicas Verdes students have a real-world impact. They work to develop sustainable systems surrounding food access, water quality, waste management, and green space. Students build gardens and host farmer’s markets; raise money for clean water infrastructure; create compost and recycling systems; and ultimately provide their community with a beautiful space to reap the benefits of being in nature.
When students volunteer, they recognize the depth of the impact they can have in their community – it inspires them to continue expanding their activism efforts. When you learn that your actions can impact others positively, it does wonders for your self-esteem. By creating something beautiful, students find beauty within themselves. They develop a sense of community and belonging in this safe space to learn and grow.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Throughout the ideation and development of Chicas Verdes I was a full-time teacher and in graduate school. Being a teacher is difficult, especially in an environment where students can’t focus on their classwork because their basic needs are not met. Ninety-nine percent of Manual Arts students are BIPOC; 81% are Hispanic or Latino and 15% are Black. Manual Arts is also a Title I school, meaning that 91% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch based on their family income and 7% of students are monitored by social services for being at-risk for homelessness. Many of the students come from immigrant families who came to the United States to escape the poverty and violence of their home countries. Sixty-nine percent of students speak English as their second language, and 31% of students are not proficient in English. Students are often hungry. They do not feel safe on their way to school. Their most basic needs are not met – when this happens, it’s hard to think about much else.
As a white woman coming from a predominantly white community, I was blind to the issues that my students experience. After learning about my students, I had all of these new data points that I had to consolidate into my worldview. I watched my students experience extreme hardship that I would never understand. It was jarring and unsettling. Their struggles turned into my struggles because I learned to love them.
Please tell us about Chicas Verdes.
As a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, Chicas Verdes cultivates environmental stewards and self-advocates with the skills to make lasting changes. To ground students in this work, students learn to do a root cause analysis of their daily experiences considering historical, social, and environmental contexts to make sense of their world. Students internalize these analyses through discussions about how their personal experiences are manifestations of their collective history. Students focus on four areas of environmental justice: food access, water quality, green space, and waste management. Through these four avenues, students develop community-based solutions to systemic problems. Students grow their own food, fundraise for clean water infrastructure, create green spaces where students can experience a sense of calm and connection to nature, and develop recycling and compost systems to reduce waste and regenerate soil.
Since its start in 2017, Chicas Verdes has hosted over 50 events to educate community members about healthy, sustainable living, and distributed over 100,000 pounds of donated produce to community members in need.
Chicas Verdes provides students with a safe space to build community and self-esteem. When students recognize that their actions can create real change, they recognize that anything is possible. Here are a few things students have shared about their time in Chicas Verdes.
“Chicas Verdes makes me feel like I’m wanted somewhere. I’m not alone and I’m enough for being who I am” – Janet
“When I put my hands in the dirt, the first thing that comes to mind is how I can change my life to be, just, happier” – Dafne
“Chicas Verdes has shown me that in order to change my community for the better, I have to change along with it. If I want to inform others, I have to keep myself informed as well; if I want to help this community eat healthier, I have to convince them by eating healthier myself.” – Anthony
“Everyone deserves access to a healthy lifestyle regardless of where they live or their financial situation” – Jennifer
I am most proud of the change in mindset and behaviors that students develop through their experience with Chicas Verdes. They bring what they learn back to their homes and help their families to make healthy changes – they start their own gardens and cook with their parents. These experiences provide a platform for families to share cultural knowledge that students later bring back to Chicas Verdes. We all learn from each other. Parents and siblings now attend our events and volunteer to support our initiatives. Chicas Verdes has become a community.
What’s your favorite memory from childhood?
My favorite memories from childhood are from playing in the woods by my house. I spent time building forts, planting flowers, and sticking my body in a sinkhole as far as I could with my best friend and my little sister. I once shared this sinkhole memory with a friend and she advised me not to flaunt it because apparently it’s freaky, but here we are. She did tell me it helped her to gain perspective on how I developed into the person I am today. As a child, I had the privilege of running around outside unsupervised and unafraid. I could explore and learn and find beauty in the interconnectedness of nature. I am so lucky to have the opportunity to curate similar experiences for my students through Chicas Verdes.
Contact Info:
- Website: chicasverdes.org | bariapplebaum.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chicasverdes/ | https://www.instagram.com/bariapplebaum
Image Credit:
Adam Perez, Mud Baron
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