Seeding Washington high-schoolers’ minds for a harvest of love for the earth
A program with Anacostia High teaches students about environmental science — and justice
By Courtland Milloy
Washington Post
October 3, 2023
Excerpt:
When Xavier Brown got a job as environmental liaison between the University of the District of Columbia and Anacostia High School in Southeast Washington, he was ecstatic. The title may sound too bureaucratic to be work worth doing, but Brown saw an opportunity to enlist a new generation in the battle against the ever-growing threat of climate catastrophe.
“Helping young people learn about the natural world, how it sustains us and what will happen if we don’t sustain it — that’s my wheelhouse,” Brown said. At 37, he is a master gardener and founder of Soilful City, a D.C.-based organization that promotes sustainable urban farming and advocates using agriculture “to heal and organize stressed communities.”
Anacostia High is in a part of the city that suffers from the highest poverty and violent crime. Trauma is common, maybe epidemic. More meditative gardening will certainly help. But there is still far more heartbreak than healing east of the Anacostia River these days.
Enter gardener Brown, seeding young minds at Anacostia High for a harvest of academic excellence and, hopefully, a timely bounty of love for the earth
