School District · youth

George L Carrington Middle School

The Root of It Food + Grow + Us Grades 6–8 · Weekly, Friday Mornings This is not a cooking class. It's not a garden club either. The Root of It is where middle schoolers learn that care is a skill — practiced on a plate and in the soil. The Root of It starts in the classroom — getting to know food from a STEM lens, and dreaming up what the garden and greenhouse could become before a single hand touches soil. As the heat breaks, students move outside to reclaim what's sat untouched for a year. Out there, the lesson turns to unseen labor: what's happening underground, under the surface, where no one's watching. Roots. Soil. Decomposition. The things that take patience because they can't be rushed or seen working. As it turns properly cold, that same attention moves back into the kitchen — precision, technique, mastery. Care and precision, same lesson, two rooms. The kitchen teaches precision. The garden teaches patience. Together, they teach the same lesson Flavor Lab has always taught: hard things become second nature when you practice them with intention. Throughout the year, students hit moments where something clicks — where a technique, a question, or a harvest suddenly means more than it did a minute ago. That's the bigger bite: the deeper takeaway underneath the task in front of them. It shows up all year, not just at the end. The year closes the way every Bigger Bite arc does — not alone, but together. A shared harvest. A dish made for someone else. Proof that what they grew and what they made were never two separate things. Same foundation. Bigger future. Phase structure: Focus 1)What You're Made Of: Classroom, STEM lens on food, dreaming up the garden/greenhouse 2) From Scratch, From Seed: Transition outdoors as heat breaks; reclaim begins 3) Seed to Self: Deeper garden phase — unseen labor, what's happening underground 4) Grow Your Own: Continued garden/greenhouse tending, ownership 5) Rooted & Ready: Kitchen technique as true cold sets in — precision, mastery Finale: Full Table, Full Self - End-of-year celebration — shared harvest dish Off- season You Grew This Summer/break garden maintenance