children | Backyard Roots

Kelly Carlisle in the Act Non Verba farm she founded in East Oakland.

Kelly Carlisle is a woman of action, so it’s appropriate the Latin name she selected for the youth urban farm project she started, Acta Non Verba, means “action not words.”

Back in 2010, Carlisle was a U.S. Navy vet who had recently returned to the Bay Area. At the time, she became upset over an article about East Oakland and its 40 percent dropout rate, its lack of opportunities, and its rampant crime and violence. It was deeply troubling to her, having grown up in East Oakland. About the same time, she noticed her daughter didn’t like going there, and Carlisle felt a bit of elitism creeping in. She also felt driven to make a change. Having recently gotten into growing food, Carlisle thought the way to reach kids was to get them involved in growing, too, and she settled on starting a nonprofit urban farm project for kids.

“The first thing I did was buy books,” said Carlisle, a reader who believes the power of change starts with education. The book, she said, told her to begin by “telling everyone.” She did, starting with her mom, her friends, and others. She perfected her elevator pitch, and then met Cynthia Armstrong, the director of Tassafaronga Recreation Center on 85th Avenue in East Oakland. Unbelievably to Carlisle, Armstrong was interested in her idea to set up a community urban farm on a quarter-acre portion of Tassafaronga Park.

Carlisle wrote up a proposal, and it was accepted. She got to work, writing grant proposals and planning the garden and the program. She has gone on to get many grants, but it’s never easy, she said. And it was especially difficult at first, being unknown, she said.

Carlisle learned a lot from the Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment. She has a soft spot for the Oakland nonprofit that promotes community advocacy to protect the environment, public health, and consumers. Carlisle credits the foundation with helping her on many levels, from leadership training to technical support.

It was through the Rose Foundation that she met a fellow nonprofit leader who led to her being invited to a presidential dinner last year. “I wasn’t going to go, but everyone said I should. So I got myself the very best Ross Dress for Less dress and went.” Carlisle also got the incredibly stressful honor, she said, of being selected to sit next to President Obama while he talked about her program.

Today Acta Non Verba farm offers summer camps for kids from kindergarten to eighth grade plus spring- and winter-break classes. The kids learn all about growing, from seeds to harvest, and they sell the produce on a farm stand and through CSA farmers. The profits they earn go into a savings account for college, an idea that came to Carlisle after she read kids who save for college are seven times more likely to go to college. Their activities also include cooking, dance, and art; the summer camp offers a healthy homemade breakfast, lunch, and snack.

Acta Non Verba takes all kids, but the nonprofit generally charges a small fee. Carlisle said that’s because she has found people value the program more when they pay for it.

Carlisle’s advice to others who wish to follow their dreams comes from a book she loves, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedoms. “Be impeccable in your intentions,” she said.

It’s good advice that she practices—just like the axiom that hits even closer to home: action not words.

Visit Acta Non Verba website here.

This story originally came out in Oakland Magazine October 2015.

Kids learn about thinning seedlings at the Acta Non Verba summer camp.

Kids learn about thinning seedlings with Instructor Kana Azhari at the Acta Non Verba summer camp.

Kids learn about thinning seedlings at the Acta Non Verba summer camp.

Singing and drumming are popular with the kids at Acta Non Verba summer camp.

Afia Walking Tree leads the kids with a song at Acta Non Verba summer camp.

Singing and drumming are popular with the kids at Acta Non Verba summer camp.

Taylor Melendy leads kids with a song at Acta Non Verba summer camp.

Kids get a homemade lunch that includes food they've help grow, like herbs in the pasta salad at Acta Non Verba.

HuNia Bradley adds home grown herbs with intern Diamond Allen. Kids get a homemade lunch that includes food they’ve help grow.

Where does food come from? Suzanne Carter got a good laugh when she heard a first grader proudly proclaim that “honey comes from the honey bee tree.” Being able to teach kids first-hand about where food comes from is one of the reasons she volunteers at her son’s elementary school garden. Three days a week she works with 240 kids, teaching them gardening skills, botany, nutrition as well as geometry and math, all using the garden as inspiration.

The idea for a teaching garden started in 2011 with no budget but lots of community support. The school’s Go Green Committee came up with the plan to turn an unloved corner of the play field into an educational garden. In January of 2012, Alameda’s then supervisor Wilma Chan organized contractors to build a shed, and a local Boy Scout troop made raised beds. Later 175 people came out to a work party to help mulch, dig and plant.

Suzanne joined in right from the beginning working with a teacher to create the garden program. She graduated with an Anthropology degree but lately she has become more interested in plants. Besides volunteering at the schools garden program she also runs her own landscaping business, Urban Gardening. At the school’s gardening program she also helps write grants to get stipends for supplies.

When I visited last week, the winter garden was going strong with 13 raised beds of spinach, lettuces, kale, fava beans, herbs, edible flowers and more. They had a giant compost bin and a worm box, and activity area with benches and tree stump stools.

The third and fourth graders I met were observing evidence of winter in the garden, looking through magnifying glasses and taking notes on clipboards. The kids found that the fruit trees did not have fruit or leaves, but they did have buds. They were fascinated by the insects. Later they talked about their observations and then picked spinach, kale, Italian dandelion leaves, baby lettuce and edible flowers. Suzanne says the kids let her know what they are really interested in but she provides the basics first. “Sustainability, energy use and eating are the big three”, she says. At the end of class the kids helped make an organic gourmet salad that would rival one you’d find at an expensive restaurant. She says the kids have debated which of the vegetables is the best. Lately kale has been the winner.

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Acta Non Verba Teaches Kids about Growing Food

Suzanne Carter at Henry Haight School Garden