Mercy Sister Cora Salazar is coordinating a new gardening program at two West Sacramento schools that promises immigrant families economic independence and connection with their cultural roots.

Evergreen and Westfield Village elementary schools, where close to half of the students are from Southeast and Central Asia, Mexico and the former Soviet Union, are participating in FIELD (Food Independence through Economic Literacy Development), a farm cooperative program supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

No newcomer to multicultural education, Sister Salazar has worked for five years with members of the Southeast Asian community as an English as a Second Language teacher and family literacy coordinator for Washington Unified School District in West Sacramento. At the heart of her work is a belief in the family unit and the community family.

Sister Salazar says it was during visits to the homes of Asian families that she discovered the potential to enrich family life by providing an opportunity to work the land.

Evergreen elementary school students (left to right) Lu Seng, Meuy Saetern and Jim Saetern take a break from harvesting in the garden by their school. Nancy Westlund/Herald photo

“I discovered they loved gardening and planting vegetables in pots outside their homes,” she said. “It dawned on me the land is very important to them.”

Utilizing gardens located on land adjacent to Evergreen and Westfield schools, the farming cooperative is headed by garden managers who coordinate the planting of a variety of vegetables and herbs from eggplants, chayote and squash to garlic and cilantro. Participating school families harvest high-quality fresh produce to be served at their kitchen tables.

Sister Salazar explained that FIELD is earning the support of teachers and administrators by providing a solution to one of their biggest concerns.

“Many of these children were not very healthy to begin with and are now eating right,” she noted.

The school curriculum component of FIELD includes hands-on instruction on composting, planting seedlings and ecology.

Future plans call for use of the produce grown in the school community gardens as part of the elementary school lunch program cooked by FIELD trained chefs.

“We’re going to celebrate our ethnicities by having once a month international food for the schools,” Sister Salazar said. “It’s saying if you recognize my rice is good, I’ll be proud to cook it and share it with you.”

Mercy Foundation is among a coalition of organizations that have become partners in the FIELD program by managing its federal grant. Shari Roeseler of Mercy Foundation’s development office says the community gardens are a perfect fit with Mercy’s vision of being where the need is greatest.

“It’s a wonderful way to support Asian and Latino cultures and encourage their involvement in their children’s schools,” Roeseler said. “It’s a nice blending of families and schools…bringing the whole community together.”

It is Sister Salazar’s view that one of the most significant benefits of FIELD is a spiritual enrichment that crosses cultural boundaries.

“We share a common understanding of a God who is good,” she said. “The people attach their lives to the growing seedling. It’s like part of them is growing, being close to the earth.”

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