While many U.S. schools are busy updating cafeteria menus with healthy alternatives, Common Vision, with help from corporate sponsors, has tried a tastier approach – planting more than 5,000 fruit trees on campuses up and down the state.
The rewards of Common Vision’s labor – apples, peaches, pears, plums, nectarines and cherimoya – become part of the school’s nutrition program. The students plant and maintain the school orchards.
Irrigation equipment manufacturer Netafim USA has been an active Common Vision supporter, donating thousands of feet of Netafim Techline CV dripline and all the accessories necessary for a school orchard installation.
Common Vision Director Leo Buc reports that his team will plant another 400 trees on 20 campuses this year and that more than 180 elementary, middle and high schools are already participating.
The organization launched its efforts in 2004 when Los Angeles-based Tree People gave Common Vision 400 fruit trees for campus orchards. To qualify, each school had to first organize an Orchard Care Committee with a teacher, administrator, parent and groundskeeper.
On tree planting day, a Common Vision crew arrives with a truckload of 3-year-old fruit trees, irrigation equipment, tools and willing hands. Student volunteers spend the afternoon digging, prepping the soil, installing the dripline and planting the young trees. The average installation is 20 trees per campus, though some sites have up to 90.
