What We Do
Our mission is to teach kids where their food comes from and why it matters.
Each year we serve over 4,000 students with hands-on outdoor learning opportunities that inspire kids' natural curiosity and cultivate environmental awareness in the next generation.
We do this through lessons on health, environment and agriculture held at five program sites that we steward: four in-school gardens throughout coastside San Mateo County, and on our two-acre educational farm right on the beautiful California coast.
We also maintain a free, comprehensive school garden curriculum created through grant funding with the US Department of Agriculture, with 26 weeks of standards-backed lessons with downloadable guides, videos, and supplemental cultural and heritage content.
Every one of our high-impact programs is fully aligned with Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and Common Core State Standards.
Health,
Environmental, and
Agricultural
Literacy
“Every child in San Mateo County should get to eat something they themselves planted. When this happens in a school garden it has a positive impact on academic achievement, health and the environment.”
Our Education Philosophy
At The HEAL Project, we believe that agriculture-based education is a valuable tool to help students connect with their place in the environment. All participants in our farm and garden programs see science, art and math concepts come alive through interactive activities. Student participants are encouraged to find wonder in nature and to nurture that wonder beyond their time with us. By promoting students’ self-sufficiency and skill-building, we hope to foster students’ connection between food, health and the environment in order to grow the next generation of environmentalists, scientists, sustainable farmers and change-makers.
All program participants have the opportunity to “dig their hands in” and contribute to the well-being of the soil, plants and animals on and around the farm and gardens. Our teaching practices encourage students to understand the link between the health of our local environment and their own health. We do this by demonstrating how food is grown and how we then use that food to nurture ourselves.
Though available to all grades, our biggest impact is through programs for elementary-aged students at the San Mateo County School Farm. We strive to be culturally relevant, age-appropriate, accessible and fun. We offer programming to all students in San Mateo County through free or low-cost farm field trips.
Our educational philosophy encourages wonder and builds connections between students, the natural world and the food system.
“The earth comes alive for my daughter. Alice comes home excited about how things grow in the ground and use sun and water to live. She now understands the connection between food and the place from which it comes.””
Our Food Philosophy
The HEAL Project believes that food is a profound way to bring people together and build community. The health of our bodies, communities and environment intersect on our plates as well as in our homes, farms, gardens and beyond. Our agriculture-based curriculum encourages children to develop the skills and knowledge tools to make healthy food choices for themselves and their world. Children plant and harvest food in our programs, which enables them to experience not only how food benefits their health, but also how good it can taste.
We believe that healthy food is minimally processed, locally grown and seasonally consumed using sustainable farming methods (see Farming Philosophy above). Research shows that children who consume a variety of whole foods have improved memories and cognitive and physical development, as well as sustained energy levels. Eating a nourishing diet reduces the risk of the chronic diseases that plague our modern society.
Our food philosophy encourages the nourishment of students’ bodies, minds and spirits while forging community connections through the sharing of wholesome, delicious food.
See these links for more information:
What should be taught in secondary schools’ nutrition and food systems education?
Nutritional Quality of Organic, Conventional, and Seasonally Grown Broccoli
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Our Solidarity with Black Lives Matter, Indigenous People and the LatinX Community:
We at The HEAL Project stand unequivocally with the movements for Black liberation. We recognize that hundreds of years of systemic racism have caused almost incomprehensible amounts of harm, both seen and unseen, to Black Americans.
As an organization dedicated to food systems education, we sit with the acknowledgement that our agricultural system was built on stolen land, labor, skills and knowledge from Black, Indigenous, and LatinX communities. Throughout the lifespan of our country, racism, oppression and white supremacist policies have overtly cut off Black, Indigenous and LatinX people from opportunities to own land and maintain control over the agricultural practices and food sources that serve them. This lack of access to personal and cultural sovereignty has fostered widening disparities in health outcomes and economic freedoms. We see these racial injustices right here on the San Mateo County coast, especially with regards to our LatinX community.
Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion:
We are grappling with our organization’s place in systemic racism and the actions we can take to practice anti-racism. We realize that this work is broad and long-term, and we are committed to this work on an ongoing basis.
Our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion work-group of staff and board members is focused on making anti-racism part of our strategic plan. Since 2020, we have been focused in the following areas:
We sought outside help in our effort to apply a critical equity and inclusion lens to our organization, not only to our programming, but also to dynamics created by our internal structures. The HEAL Project received support from Justice Outside in 2022 to provide this technical assistance through multiple strategies including an organizational assessment, facilitation, and training for board and staff.
We incorporated new culturally meaningful content into our garden and farm curriculum.
We trained staff on the history of the local Ramaytush Ohlone people, improving our understanding of sustainable land management techniques and the use of native plants for food, housing, cultural rituals, and more.
We partnered with local Ramaytush Ohlone Chapter to develop Land Acknowledgement Signs. We installed the signs at The San Mateo County School Farm and all seven of the Cabrillo Unified School District’s school sites.
We hired Spanish-speaking staff and began publishing our monthly electronic newsletter in English and Spanish.
We increased food donation to individuals and organizations on the coast.
We are making progress strengthening relationships with the community we serve to amplify marginalized voices through proactive outreach.
Moving forward, our goals include the following:
Continue to enhance our lessons and communications to be more culturally inclusive
Increase our outreach to socioeconomically disadvantaged groups/communities
Engage Coastal community organizations to identify opportunities for partnership
Establish approaches to improve internal organizational sustainability such as improving diversity of staff and board members, raising wages, and further embedding a culture of diversity, inclusion, and equity
We are committed to setting aside time and resources to meet these goals. As we move forward with this work, we will continue to identify areas of potential improvement in our equity practices and set goals to pinpoint these areas.