West Oakland Welcomes 4-H

By C.J. Hirschfield

4-H: It’s not just for farm kids anymore.

Though historically an agricultural organization, 4-H today focuses on citizenship, healthy living, science, engineering, and technology programs. As you might imagine, rural 4-H clubs – which comprise 2.6 million young members – still dominate. But I was surprised to learn that urban clubs come in second, ahead of suburban.

Until this year, Livermore led Alameda County in the number of 4-H clubs, with three. But now it’s a tie: Yes, Oakland, California, now has three 4-H clubs as well, as we welcome the City Slicker Farms 4-H After School Group from West Oakland. City Slicker is joining Oak Town (based in the Diamond district) and Montclair (winners of four ribbons in the swine category at the 2013 Alameda County Fair).

And Fairyland is proud to be their partner.

The City Slickers Farm 4-H Club pollinator class. Fairyland horticulturist Jackie Salas is standing, right, in cap.

For those of you unfamiliar with City Slicker Farms, I urge you to drive down Grand Ave. one Saturday morning, turn right on Peralta, and discover the vibrant farmstand at the West Oakland Urban Farm and Park, a working urban farm. At that location, City Slicker Farms encourages West Oakland community members to grow healthy food for themselves and their families in organic, sustainable, high-yield urban farms and backyard gardens.

It was Slicker’s high-energy executive director Rodney Spencer who first got the idea to create a new 4-H Club, after the Emeryville Club used the farm as part of a project involving mulching, working with the farm’s chickens, and cooking the produce that had been grown.

“It got me thinking how awesome it would be to have our own 4-H Club at the park,” Rodney told me. The process took three months of meetings and conversations with folks from U.C. Co-op Extension, Alameda County and parents at nearby Vincent Academy, a K-5 charter school whose students made up the very first 4-H class.

Rodney’s goal was not to show off goats and pigs – “not at this point” – but to get urban kids used to the idea of gardening and raising animals in a city setting at a young age.

Before he launched the 4-H Club, he told me, he’d hoped to attract local teens to the farm with paying jobs. But he they weren’t interested, because “they think we’re a bunch of kooks” and don’t see the value or community benefit of the farm. So he switched his focus to younger kids, figuring that if they become interested in and comfortable with farming, they will develop lifetime habits of growing and cooking their own healthy foods. They might even come back and work at City Slicker.

That’s where Fairyland entered the picture.

Rodney approached Jackie Salas, Fairyland’s horticulturist and landscape supervisor, about helping with a pollinator project for the new 4-H members, mostly 7-year-olds. Jackie immediately saw the potential, and quickly signed on.

At their second club meeting, the nine kids learned about the life cycle of a monarch butterfly, went on a pollinator scavenger hunt, and created colorful drawings that illustrated what they’d found. They even performed a dance based on the butterfly’s lifecycle. For the club’s February meeting, the kids will come to Fairyland, where they’ll see our Miss Muffet’s Garden.

4-H kids doing the butterfly lifecycle dance with Jackie Salas (right).

Rodney sees the new club as a bridge between diverse members of the West Oakland community that will unite longtime and new residents as well as different ethnicities and cultures. “When all of the kids are working together, the parents are, too,” he says.

At the club’s November meeting, the kids will plan a butterfly garden and plant flowers to attract pollinators. They’ll also help feed the park’s chickens, and maybe make seed balls. Rodney wants to start with the younger kids, and then encourage them to take leadership roles in middle school.

He’s starting small, but he’s also thinking of next year’s program. “Fasten your seat belts,” he says. “My idea is to add goats and bunnies to the farm.” He is quick to point out that they might not immediately start making milk and cheese or angora wool, but you can tell that’s where he’s going.

Rodney envisions more and more kids in his community who think it’s cool to grow and cook your own healthy food. “We’ll create a bunch of little granolas here,” he laughs.

For more information about City Slicker Farms, go to their website. And to support the Farm’s new 4-H program, click on the website’s “Donate” button or send an email to info@cityslickerfarms.org.

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C.J. Hirschfield has served for 15 years as executive director of Children's Fairyland, where she is charged with the overall operation of the nation's first storybook theme park.