Cultivating Belonging Through Youth Voices
At The HEAL Project, we believe it is our responsibility to represent and deeply engage with the community we call home. Through partnerships, advisory groups, and thoughtful hiring and training, we strive to be an organization that contributes to a thriving, inclusive region.
In fall of 2025, we launched our first Student Advisory Board (SAB), a group of local high school students who are helping shape how our programs inspire, connect, and engage young learners.
Our first Student Advisory Board meeting at The HEAL Project’s farm in El Granada.
The first session of the SAB brought out three critical perspectives on learning, food, and belonging:
🌿 Learning That Lasts: What Students Remember
When asked to recall a memorable moment from elementary school (quite a while ago!), the answers from these high school students answers revealed a clear theme: hands-on, outdoor learning sticks.
Whether growing pea plants, cooking together, or exploring nature, they remembered experiences years later that engaged all the senses — the smell of onions, the feel of soil, the taste of something they helped make.
“We remember learning that is hands-on, connected to who we are, and shared with others.”
- Student Advisory Board Member
These reflections reaffirm our belief that the most powerful lessons happen when students are moving, creating, and connecting lessons to the world around them.
🥗 Food is Love, Culture, and Connection
In a creative exercise called “Memories & Roots,” students drew or wrote about a food that represents their family or community. Their answers — pancakes, cookies, blueberries, porcini mushrooms, sweet peas — told stories of love, family traditions, and quality time spent together.
“My yogurt bowl is like my community,” one student shared. “We’re all different, but mix it together, and it tastes great!”
This simple insight captures how food brings people together — a message at the heart of The HEAL Project’s mission. Food isn’t just nourishment; it’s a symbol of belonging.
🌼 Making Learning More Inclusive
One of the most important elements of the Student Advisory Board is helping shape the future of programming at The HEAL Project. Our first session surfaced lots of ideas that we plan to explore together:
Adding wooden plant signs to the field, and doing short, creative projects like landscape painting to help kids engage with all their senses on the farm.
Providing take-home plants or recipes to help kids share their learning with their families and bring their newfound knowledge home.
Including more storytelling about how plants grow and how food relates to students’ own diets.
These suggestions highlight a desire for deeper engagement, personalization, and ways to extend learning beyond the farm.
What’s next:
By giving students a seat at the table, we’re ensuring that our gardens, lessons, and field trips reflect the diverse stories, cultures, and experiences of the youth we serve.
Our next generation of environmental stewards isn’t just learning from the land — they’re shaping how others will learn from it too.
If you or a high school student you know is interested in joining our Student Advisory Board, reach out to us at programs@thehealproject.org.
