THE ELITE TEAM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Join our elite team of students, volunteers , interns and professionals.

 

Can you commit to a special project on a weekend?
Can you volunteer a few hours each week?
Do you like community outreach?
Do you enjoy the complex and ever-important world of grant writing?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, we want you! Even if you didn’t, we still want go-getters like you. You have special skills which you can put to use creating positive change in Los Angeles. We want to navigate this complicated world but we need your help!

WARNING!  This work is very rewarding! We are a social bunch who work very hard and also enjoy ourselves. You will be part of a wonderful community of like-minded people.  You will meet new people, learn new things and discover new talents within yourself.

WARNING!  Your experience with ENRICH LA will equip you with a  “can do” attitude.

WARNING!  You will be making an impact on others! Young students throughout this city have zero access to the joys of growing food and all the happiness that goes along with it. They may have never tasted a bruschetta made with heirloom tomatoes grown from their school garden but with your help, that can change. Your KARMA account will be overflowing because of this.

Now that you’ve been warned, we’d love to hear from you! If you are interested in becoming part of this elite team, contact: Tomas O Grady at 323 387 3866 or tomasogradyenrichla@gmail.com

 

 

Monlux Gardeners

Students at Monlux Elementary School already have green thumbs. They’ve learned so much about ecosystems, seeds, edible plants and much more.

Today, these little gardeners helped remove pesky weeds from the native garden and learned about the gardens friends and foes.

Wilton place elementary garden is planted

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drip system operational

El Sereno Middle School. The Habitat begins.

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Amending @ Alta Loma

The garden at Alta Loma produced beautiful beets, chard, kale, cabbage and much much more! But…It’s that time of year to make sure the soil is healthy for our new crops. After the helpers amended the plots, we planted tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, basil, thyme and cucumbers.

Yummy food is just around the corner!

Fixing sprinklers, planting tomatoes, and enjoying loquats from the garden.

We’ve been busy fixing up problematic sprinklers.

We planted tomatoes.

We treated ourselves to fresh loquats from the loquat tree in the garden!

Potatoes, Garlic, Onions and More!

The Luther Burbank Middle School garden is in full bloom. Early this morning, birds, butterflies, bees and a slew of insects filled the space. Months ago, when we were nervous about morning frost we ventured out and planted potatoes, garlic, onions, kale and chard. This week we enjoyed the fruits of our labor. After harvesting the edibles, we rinsed them off and threw them onto a pan.

Students were amazed that they grew every ingredient, except for the mushrooms!

The garlic bulbs needed to be dried ahead of time but we harvested a new one for the following week. Yummm!

Wait, there’s more! The corn we planted in March is thigh-high…That means it easily surpassed the saying, “knee-high by the 4th of July!”

 

Spring @ Markham

The plants at Markham Farm seem to be enjoying the warmer weather. There are signs of new and tasty edibles in the future! Check out this young butternut squash. In some countries, young squash like the one below are considered a delicacy.

The native area is full of many vibrant colors that are sure to attract our friends the pollinators.

Alta Loma Elementary School

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Following the Ladybugs

The artichoke plant at Atwater attracts a lot of ladybugs in all stages of development. Great for learning!

El Sereno Middle School Habitat progress

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Tomas O’Grady and
Roberto Martinez
Superintendent and Dr.Francis Gipson , PRincipal

Buckets of fun at Delevan Drive!

This student from Mrs. Hong’s class hand picked all this kale with a small group of friends. Buckets of fun in the school garden!

Its Harvest Time

Strawberries, Red Russian kale, spinach, and red lettuce all picked by the students at Delevan Drive. Happy Harvest!!!!!!

El Sereno. Massive Volunteer built habitat undertaking. Progress report.

Mulch and tree stumps from LAUSD tree trimming ready for the install

Mulch and tree stumps from LAUSD tree trimming ready for the install

Terracing with volunteers from Boston Consulting

Boston Consulting employees

Uber-Volunteer Dee Dee Wei (left) with Taylor Rodriguez

Happy Mother’s Day

The students at Atwater Elementary made heart-shaped seed bombs for Mother’s Day, made from old newspaper and other scrap paper. Each student got to make a heart filled with carrot seeds for their moms. It was a fun activity and as one of the teacher’s pointed out, the hearts are symbolic of our love for our mothers and when the seeds start growing it will be a continuation of that love. :)

Hearts and smiles for mom.

Canvas was stretched all over the garden for drying.

Colorful Snacks from the Markham Farm

“Yummmm!”

That was the first word that came out of a new student’s mouth. We worked in the garden for a bit and then prepared this quick snack. Everyone agreed that the fresh cilantro and lime juice made the salsa even tastier.

 

 

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The new learning Habitat and Farm at El Sereno Middle School

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

5/8/2013

Contact Tomas O’Grady. Tomasogrady@enrichla.org. 323 387 3866

The new learning Habitat and Farm at El Sereno Middle School is to be completed on May 18th, 2013 in celebration of Harvey Milk Day. 200 volunteers will build a mini farm, dry creek and native garden.

This schoolyard habitat will offer an opportunity for all El Sereno students to become stewards of their landscape and to engage directly with nature. Schoolyard habitats create an opportunity for on-campus curriculum-based science learning. The students will not only be part of the work day when we build this habitat, but can be part of its upkeep. Over time, we expect the habitat to become a natural extension of their classroom.

Community Partners

Boston Consulting | Gay For Good | Fox Gives | The Office of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa | You Think | Whole Foods | Los Angeles Unified School District | City Of Los Angeles | Sodder Studio | LYFT | Monica Garcia, School Board President

“Our goal is to create a schoolyard habitat built on sound ecological principles for habitat restoration and on innovative educational programming.” Tomas O’Grady

The Woodlawn Elementary School garden has well over 30 species of edible plants. Some of these wonderful fruits, vegetables, and herbs are hard to recognize in their immature stage so we decided to make signs to help our garden community.

The signs were showered throughout the garden when we finished up the day. They’ll helps us all learn the plants in our beautiful space.

 

Seedlings are in @ Wilton Place!

Hundreds of students at Wilton Place Elementary School came to their school garden today to transplant seedlings. While they were planting, they noticed some of the gardens living things. One student shouted, “Beeeeees!” Another exclaimed, “Worms!”

Needless to say, it was a fun day in the sun!

A Garden Rich in Edibles!

Colorful chard

The parsley turned out to be a very popular nibble.

Young red onions.

Snap peas.

A big head of lettuce.

 

Lavender blooms

Young carrots.

Purple cauliflower