An Edible Education Exchange with ESY Japan

It was a year in the making. Eri Suzuki, a board member of Edible Schoolyard Japan, a counterpart organization of ours, reached out to our Executive Director, Ashley Rouse, proposing that our two programs hold a collaborative, five-day exchange with one another for the purpose of building a stronger bond between our educators and exchanging cultural experiences, practices, and aligning on the ethos of the Edible Schoolyard Project’s principles and beliefs. We, of course, lept at the opportunity, and a grant as well as months and months of planning later, late September was finally here and it was time for the exchange.

Fifteen participants from Japan showed up for our kickoff dinner, and I was surprised at how unphased by the long travel they were – they had just arrived the day before, had a full day of touring Berkeley, and yet were fully energized and excited to be here.

The group included program administrators from Edible Schoolyard Japan, educators, farmers, gardeners. Aside from three translators, most of the participants spoke very little English – and no one on our team spoke Japanese. Yet despite any language barrier, the mutual appreciation and excitement for the next few days was palpable, and we all immediately dove into sharing about our two programs, our approaches for serving students and community members, ideas for future initiatives, and even even little bit about our lives at home and families. 

The subsequent few days were packed, dynamic, and incredibly inspiring. As hosts we had the opportunity to demonstrate the nuts and bolts of our programming both at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School in Berkeley, as well as at the Community Farm in Stockton, California. We walked the participants through lessons that we teach in the garden and kitchen, shared about our approaches for organizing training events, presented on how we host student field trips, and more.

The Edible Schoolyard Japan educators  led us through a skill share exploration of miso, including a presentation on the making, the many health benefits, and ways to engage students in the making of miso. Miso being the result of fermenting soybeans and koji, the educators shared about how they lead students through making miso early in the school year, letting mixture of cooked and mashed soybeans and koji sit in a cool, dark place for at least six months, and then unearthing the finished product at the end of the school year to taste and use in making miso soup. The presentation was rounded out by a tasting of a wide variety of miso, as well as getting to make a batch of it ourselves.

Between sharing knowledge and practices, cooking and eating together, and asking questions about each others’ approaches for creating meaningful learning experiences in garden and kitchen classrooms, I was struck by the universality of edible education. Here we were, groups of people from different cultures, parts of the world, languages, and yet it felt the entire time that there was far more we had in common than not. The spirit of generosity and a shared inspiration for connecting children to food, the earth, and community made the five days of exchange such a rich and affirming experience, infusing both of our teams with new joy and energy for our work.

We look forward to staying close with our friends from Edible Schoolyard Japan, and to continue to find ways to bring like-minded people in the global field of edible education together.