In one of California’s least healthy coun­ties, a grass­roots effort is under­way to pro­mote healthy eat­ing habits among chil­dren with extra vir­gin olive oil at its core. 

The Buena Vista Edible Schoolyard serves about 1,000 stu­dents from kinder­garten to sixth grade. The cur­ricu­lum fol­lows a unique edu­ca­tional-nutri­tional model, with stu­dents learn­ing to har­vest and cook with award-win­ning extra vir­gin olive oil made from the school’s 370 Manzanilla olive trees.

The olive and olive oil-cen­tric lessons rep­re­sent a por­tion of what the pub­lic char­ter school calls its out­door class­room. The pro­gram cov­ers basic con­cepts of ecol­ogy, self-suf­fi­ciency, healthy eat­ing and math skills while devel­op­ing an appre­ci­a­tion for the envi­ron­ment.

This edi­ble edu­ca­tion pro­gram has a unique his­tory. In 2012, mature olive trees were trans­planted from Woodlake, in the Porterville area of California’s San Joaquin Valley, to Bakersfield 50 miles (80 kilo­me­ters) south. 

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Darcy Marshall’s olive trees became a source of food, inspi­ra­tion and health for Edible Schoolyard Kern County stu­dents and the com­mu­nity.

“With his love of the land and healthy cui­sine, Marshall was nur­tur­ing what would become a new busi­ness bring­ing ben­e­fits to thou­sands of fam­i­lies in our agri­cul­tural com­mu­nity and far beyond,” Dylan Wilson, the exec­u­tive direc­tor of Edible Schoolyard Kern County, told Olive Oil Times,

“Marshall har­vests and presses the hand-picked olives each year,” he added. ​“He named the bounty of his har­vests Buena Vista extra vir­gin olive oil, [which] has taken first place at the Kern County Fair since 2015.” 

Wilson described Buena Vista extra vir­gin olive oil as robust with aro­matic fla­vors. ​“The oil is per­fect for enjoy­ing over a slice of freshly baked bread, in creamy vinai­grettes or hearty dishes such as soups and stews or grilled meats and roasted veg­eta­bles,” he said.

The 370 olive trees and the school­yard they sur­round are inti­mately linked in the lives of Kern County fam­i­lies of all eco­nomic con­di­tions and culi­nary tal­ents. The trees offer an out­door class­room for under­stand­ing the seed-to-table cycle. 

“Marshall’s land­scap­ing team cares for, stew­ards and har­vests with Edible Schoolyard Kern County’s sus­tain­able philoso­phies and prac­tices,” Wilson said. ​“Following press­ing and bot­tling, Marshall donates the fin­ished extra vir­gin olive oil to Edible Schoolyard Kern County.”

The school then sells the olive oil to res­i­dents in Kern County and Southern California, with pro­ceeds going to its stu­dent pro­grams and the local com­mu­nity.

Marshall’s wife, Barbara Grimm Marshall, founded Grow Academies: pub­lic char­ter schools for kinder­garten through eighth-grade stu­dents in Arvin, Shafter and rural areas of Kern County.

The schools are built around a unique edu­ca­tional-nutri­tional model of edi­ble school­yards with olive trees on each cam­pus.

At the Edible Schoolyard Kern County and the Grow Academies, stu­dents learn to develop healthy eat­ing habits through nutri­tion, edu­ca­tion and hands-on seed-to-table expe­ri­ences.

Buena Vista extra vir­gin olive oil sup­plies the kitchen class­rooms, in which young chefs learn to pre­pare, serve and enjoy the foods they have grown and har­vested from the gar­dens to which they tend.

“Students develop a love of sea­sonal, healthy recipes and take these eat­ing habits home to improve the nutri­tional choices of their fam­i­lies,” Wilson said.

Despite being one of the lead­ing agri­cul­tural coun­ties glob­ally, Kern County strug­gles with a con­cern­ing real­ity: one in four com­mu­nity mem­bers faces food inse­cu­rity. 

The county presents a com­pelling case for sup­port­ing ini­tia­tives to edu­cate the com­mu­nity on healthy eat­ing.

Access to fresh, nutri­tious and afford­able food is lack­ing for many res­i­dents. The dan­gers are com­pounded by many fam­i­lies hav­ing a lim­ited under­stand­ing of how to max­i­mize the nutri­ent value of avail­able pro­duce. 

Additionally, the county grap­ples with alarm­ingly high rates of obe­sity and dia­betes, rank­ing 53^rd out of 58 coun­ties in California for over­all well­ness.

“Our mis­sion is to proac­tively address these chal­lenges by inspir­ing future gen­er­a­tions to cul­ti­vate a healthy and pos­i­tive rela­tion­ship with their food,” Wilson said. ​“Looking ahead, we envi­sion deep­en­ing our con­nec­tions with com­mu­nity part­ners and expand­ing our array of pro­grams.” 

Since 2019, the Edible Schoolyard net­work has flour­ished, encom­pass­ing eight affil­i­ated edi­ble school­yard pro­grams.

“The growth has been remark­able, with the com­mu­nity whole­heart­edly embrac­ing the approach of impart­ing basic con­cepts related to the seed-to-table cycle to chil­dren,” Wilson said. ​“We firmly believe that by instill­ing these lessons in young minds, we are effect­ing pos­i­tive changes in the eat­ing habits of their fam­i­lies.”

Wilson said the project is far­sighted, tak­ing a multi­gen­er­a­tional approach to more broadly improv­ing aware­ness of extra vir­gin olive oil and healthy eat­ing pat­terns. 

“Moving for­ward, we remain ded­i­cated to fos­ter­ing a health­ier and more resilient com­mu­nity, ensur­ing that our efforts con­tribute to a sus­tain­able and pos­i­tive future,” he said.

At the Edible Schoolyard Kern County, a cen­tral tenet of the teach­ing phi­los­o­phy is the pro­mo­tion of healthy eat­ing habits, with a par­tic­u­lar empha­sis on con­sum­ing whole foods.

“While adults may face chal­lenges in alter­ing their dietary rou­tines, we empha­size that it’s never too late to make pos­i­tive changes, and a key aspect is incor­po­rat­ing more whole foods into one’s diet,” Wilson said.

According to Wilson, iden­ti­fy­ing and under­stand­ing whole foods – those in their orig­i­nal, unprocessed state – is fun­da­men­tal to fos­ter­ing a nutri­tious lifestyle.

The pro­gram puts these prin­ci­ples into action by encour­ag­ing peo­ple of all ages to make con­scious choices in favor of whole foods, min­i­mize the con­sump­tion of ultra-processed alter­na­tives and actively sup­port local seed-to-table or food lit­er­acy pro­grams.

Many local edi­ble edu­ca­tion pro­grams, such as these California school pro­grams, are ini­ti­ated and sus­tained by com­mu­nity mem­bers, often fac­ing finan­cial chal­lenges. 

“Local sup­port, whether through vol­un­teer­ing or finan­cial con­tri­bu­tions, can sig­nif­i­cantly impact these pro­grams and con­tribute to the com­mu­ni­ty’s over­all well-being,” Wilson said. ​“This is espe­cially vital when these pro­grams involve edu­cat­ing chil­dren, as they play a cru­cial role in enhanc­ing the health and knowl­edge base of the com­mu­nity.”

“Our mes­sage is one of life­long learn­ing about food, fos­ter­ing health­ier eat­ing habits, and actively sup­port­ing local ini­tia­tives that pro­mote seed-to-table aware­ness and food lit­er­acy,” he con­cluded. ​“By doing so, we col­lec­tively con­tribute to indi­vid­ual well-being, com­mu­nity improve­ment, and a more sus­tain­able and informed approach to food choices.”