Kelli Barram and Arnon Oren Are Growing Youth at Plant to Plate
Creating an environment in which plants can flourish starts with the right soil. Similarly, a person’s attitudes, preferences, and behaviors are shaped early in life by foundational experiences, opportunities, and access. That’s why co-founders Kelli Barram and Arnon Oren created the Plant to Plate Internship Program.
“What we're doing is growing youth, their minds and skill sets, through the vehicle of a garden and a professional kitchen,” says Barram. The Richmond nonprofit selects 15 high school students each year for a 7-month paid internship and youth development program that aims to empower, train, and prepare participants not only for work in the food industry, but for life.
When it comes to matters of food, health, and conservation, advocates say the biggest gap is in education; meanwhile, kids from under-resourced backgrounds, like those Plant to Plate primarily serves, don’t have the same access to workforce opportunities and training as others. This comprehensive program teaches students the hard and soft skills necessary to grow food in the garden, prepare it in the kitchen, and serve it in a restaurant, but it also offers the tools to transform their relationship with food, finance, the job market, and even their own bodies and minds.
“It’s about problem-solving and communication skills; working as a team; managing stress; and being in community together, creating a network and an opportunity for them,” says Barram, who is also the program’ executive director and educator. Students learn gardening, kitchen basics, and both front and back of house restaurant operations—including knife skills, spices, recipe creation, and tasting—along with broadly applicable workforce training and financial management. But the program also takes a holistic approach to wellness, teaching nutrition and health as well as mindfulness and meditation. All the while, students get real, paid work experience before they’ve even received their high school diploma.
Barram met Oren, who owns and manages the restaurant and catering business Anaviv’s Table, at a fundraiser for Richmond nonprofits. At the time, Barram was the garden education specialist at Washington Elementary, and they connected over a mutual desire to expand local access to nutritious, organic food while educating and serving the community. Their partnership started with Barram supplying greens and herbs to Anaviv’s Table, but “I wanted to get involved in the community more in-depth,” says Oren, who is now Plant to Plate’s director and board president.
Barram and her colleague knew of a vacant, overgrown plot near Oren’s restaurant, and they began to envision a garden-to-table youth-development program. “There are plenty of garden and food programs for the younger kids, but not so many for high schoolers,” Oren recalls Barram saying at the time; this is especially true for those from under-resourced families, who don’t have access to other resources and enrichment programs. With the support of Oren and local nonprofit West County DIGS—which uses funding from grants and individual donations to serve school gardens in West Contra Costa—the first cohort started in January 2017, and the program is now in its fifth year.
From October through mid-April, students attend class in a raised-bed urban garden on Harbor Way; in the winter months, instruction moves to Anaviv’s Table. After establishing basic skills in a series of two-hour long evening sessions, students earn a $300 paid stipend by working 20 hours in the garden, restaurant, and/or kitchen, depending on their interests. Barram creates the curriculum, enlisting volunteer help from Richmond area professionals for certain portions, such as a recruiter who teaches resume creation and interviewing techniques.
Oren oversees the restaurant side, coordinating kitchen logistics and recruiting volunteers from his staff to help train students. “This is the most rewarding part, besides seeing the kids launching well and gaining a lot of good tools and empowerment,” he says. “Since our chefs mentor and volunteer their time to teach the kids, it empowered the employees in ways that I couldn’t imagine. Everyone throughout the [restaurant], even the dishwashers, had a connection to these kids, and it’s brought so much positivity to the business.”
While it starts with food, the skills students learn are “transferable to whatever context they're in … within the lens of what's going to be relevant to them in the next two to three years,” Barram adds, whether it’s their first job or cooking a meal in their college dorm room. Students learn everything from creative ways to use an egg to nutrition density, what makes a whole food, and navigating labels and grocery-store shopping; financial management training covers banking, the risks of credit cards, and keeping a budget.
“Within the framework of readying them, we actually give them a job. We teach them how to write a resume, and give them the experience to put on that resume,” Barram explains, “and we want to make sure we offer our interns an education about how to best manage the money they earn in our program.”
But perhaps the most impactful part is the mindfulness training, helping students cultivate a sound inner environment to manage the inevitable challenges of work and school that come their way. “We incorporate stress management psychoeducational tools, … and start every class with a moment of mindfulness,” Barram says. “They’re teenagers, so they’ll act like they hate it, … but if you ask them privately, 99% say [it’s] the one thing you cannot take away.”
Because the program is small, they can keep up with graduates, she adds, and “the most rewarding part is to see them grow up over time, to have been part of their journey, and to have hopefully played some role … in their development.”
Plant to Plate is open to applicants who are juniors or seniors in high school and live in the Richmond and San Pablo areas, recruiting from Kennedy, Richmond, and El Cerrito High Schools (priority is given to students who also qualify for assistance through the West Contra Costa Unified School District’s free and reduced lunch program). Those interested in participating, volunteering, or donating can learn more by visiting the program website or Instagram account; to apply, contact Barram through Instagram or at Plant2Plate.richmond@gmail.com.
