Bridgette Byrd
FoodCorps AmeriCorps Service Member
Meet Bridgette Byrd!
Bridgette is a FoodCorps AmeriCorps Service Member at the Greater Newark Conservancy where she has embarked upon a year long journey in supporting local Newark schools, providing experiential project-based learning dedicated to healthy kids, food nutrition, and food justice. In her role, she supports academic and social and emotional needs by collaborating with classroom teachers to build on classroom learning, often highlighting Farm to School lessons and utilizing the Conservancy’s nearby Hawthorne Ave. Farm. In the school cafeteria, classrooms, and even on the farm itself, taste tests are integrated to expand food access, exposure, and distribution.
Outside is Bridgette’s classroom of choice! Within her first few weeks of service, Bridgette organized a 2022 September Fall Festival at the Hawthorne Avenue Farm, involving various community volunteers and local organizations, who all came together to help with farm activities and to serve fresh, locally sourced recipes to nearly 500 students! In October, Bridgette was invited to participate with Hawthorne Ave. School’s 7th Annual Hawthorne ``Shake Up" celebration, where she supported their day of fun exercise activities with tasty fresh fruit and vegetable stations!
In this first semester of the school year, Bridgette has made it a priority, as often as possible, to give students the opportunity to enjoy outdoor learning experiences in school gardens and on the urban farm cultivating various crops, harvesting produce, and tasting freshly grown fruits and vegetables. As one student joyfully said it perfectly, "Am I eating healthy?...YES! I'm gonna eat heathy every day!"
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