Since its inception, Mykawa Farm has been the beating heart of the mission of HISD’s Nutrition Services Department. The headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Literacy Center (FALC), Mykawa Farm is a working educational farm where students gain not only foundational knowledge about agriculture and the environment, but have an opportunity to volunteer or work for pay, developing skills they will take with them into adulthood.

Nutrition Services welcomed more than 70 volunteers from local organizations The Mission Continues and CarMax to the farm on Saturday, April 27 (a make-up date after unexpected rains upended the original planned date, Earth Day). The volunteers set to work building arbors and trellises in the Mykawa Sensory Garden, a new fence to protect crops from scavenging animals, and new ADA-compliant picnic tables.

The FALC received a Texas USDA Conservation Innovation Grant which allowed the program to build an accessible pathway that runs throughout the farm. The completion of this pathway, along with other ADA-compliant amenities like the picnic tables, will ensure that the farm can accommodate more students and community members regardless of their individual needs.

“It’s cool for the volunteers who’ve come out before to look and see the work they did last time. It makes them want to help out more,” said Nutrition Services CTM Marcus Glenn. “We’re looking forward to bringing kids out this fall and showing them the work that volunteers with The Mission Continues and CarMax did today for our Earth Day celebration.”

To round out the day of hard work, more volunteers and community members hosted a pop-up farmer’s market at Mykawa. The HISD student workers that the farm regularly employs grow and harvest produce for sale at farmer’s markets throughout the school year, and their contributions plus that of regular community volunteers and organized volunteer events keep the farm ready to welcome visitors and offer first-hand experience with food and agriculture education.

The FALC is largely funded by grants doggedly applied-for by Glenn and his devoted Nutrition Services team. To read more about FALC and the progress made at Mykawa Farm over the years, visit the FALC tag on the HISD news blog.

For more information about FALC and Nutrition Services, visit the FALC webpage.