Six years ago, we signed up to lead a project that will transform
a vacant lot near public housing and one of the elementary
schools we serve. The vision: improve the health of children by
transforming the school district to prioritize food literacy
education in our children’s school day alongside math and
reading. Years of collaboration between Food Literacy Center,
SCUSD, and the City of Sacramento has resulted in construction of a 4,500 sq ft cooking school
and student gardens that bring this vision to
life!
Watch our founder, and the visionary behind this concept, Amber
Stott, as she shares a
quick update on the construction progress at Leataata Floyd
Elementary School. We are on track to open this fall. The
classroom will host 30-40 students for hands-on cooking classes.
The commercial kitchen will support prep for afterschool programs
at other Title 1 schools. Our team offices, also on site, will
provide training space and a recipe test kitchen. In addition,
we’ll have a 1-acre healing garden and student farm to provide a
safe nature space for our students.
We broke ground on this one-of-a-kind project in September 2019.
Construction is moving fast on the building. After the building
is complete solar panels will be installed followed by
inspections.
Click on the photos below to see the
progress!
After the groundbreaking in September 2019, there were many
delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Preparation of the site
started again in May 2020. Deep stabilizing pylons were
placed in September and October which required a large piece of
equipment and lots of earth pounding. In November utilities
were laid. The outline of the cooking school could be seen where
they built concrete framing and installed beams.
In early December the concrete floors were poured and it’s
started looking like a real building. Walls went up in the
middle of December and by January 2021 you could see the
walls in front and the center support beam extending the
length of the building.
In late January the roof was added, there was framing inside and
you can see the full shape and size of the building and back
patio which will be an outdoor classroom area. Staff and board
members were able to tour the site. In March the siding,
windows and roof were being worked on.
In April more work was done on the exterior siding, roof and
interior. We’ve also secured a landscape architect to
bring our Urban
Farm and Garden to life! In addition, the Building Leadership
Talent class at SMUD chose phase 1 of the garden as their class
project and will be helping to build out the area in
spring/summer 2021.
In June appliances were installed in our commercial kitchen and
kitchen classroom. Our commercial kitchen consists of
induction stovetops, walk-in refrigerator, and dry storage.
We are excited this space will allow us to serve more kids
and families.
On October 15 we moved into our brand new facility Floyd
Farms, adjacent to Leataata Floyd Elementary. Our cooking
classroom will serve 30+ students, the commercial kitchen
will allow us to keep our produce fresh and provide us with the
storage we need to keep running our program. This new space will
serve as our offices where our staff will train future
instructors of our curriculum and manage day-to-day operations.
November 3rd It’s official! After more than six years of
hard work, Floyd Farms is finally our home! We formally received
the keys to this 4,500 square foot facility at a brief Key
Ceremony held by the Sacramento City Unified School District to
commemorate the milestone.
We’re operating the new Floyd Farms near Leataata Floyd
Elementary School & Marina Vista public housing. The site is
owned and built by Sacramento City Unified School District. Our
nonprofit has moved on site to operate the facility and run
programs. Floyd Farms, a 2.5-acre project featuring a cooking
classroom, commercial kitchen, and student gardens, now serves as
Food Literacy Center’s headquarters.
This new cooking school will serve the 330 elementary school
students enrolled at Leataata Floyd Elementary, their families,
and students throughout the district, plus community members.
Help us expand programs for our kids in this new space.
You can honor a family member or loved one by naming a garden bed or tree for
them. Your support will help us build the next generation of
healthy kids!
