(somber piano music playing) (somber music over traffic sounds and sirens) (upbeat music) - [Principal Cook] I'm Principal Akbar Cook, principal at West Side High School in Newark, New Jersey. One of the things that I wanted to do here was bring an urban farm to the area. We're going to teach the kids how to take the farm and make it fruitful for the school. But also something they can sustain for years to come. (upbeat music plays) This is Cesar Presa, the first farmer in the history of Newark Board of Education. And he's right here at West Side High School. - I think the experience of being someone who lives in the city, and being exposed to something like this will be a very fulfilling thing. (upbeat music) - [Shemiah] My name is Shemiah. I'm 18 years old. When I graduate, I want to go to college and I want to study to be a doctor. (indistinct conversation) - [Car Occupant] What? (car occupants laughing) - I like to draw and read. I don't really like to go outside, I'm a pretty inside person. - Shemiah, her struggle right now, I think, is being social. She always says, "Mommy, I don't like people." So going out there and mingling with other kids, it will be good for her. - Ew, it's a sunny day today. I had never worked on a garden before, but when the opportunity presented me, I knew I had to take it. We good, look, we at the school I want to be smart, I want to be sophisticated. I want people to look at me, like not statistic. Like he actually got up, woke up every day, and got to work. My mother put this down, it say "Blessed." I'm tight with my family, more than any my friends. Like, they will always be there for me and I know that. - I think that Zahmir can get from this garden experience (horns honking) to get to know himself more, to be more positive to his self. For him to understand, like, you can do much more when you believe in yourself. (Zahmir speaks indistinctly and Christina laughs) - (Zahmir vocalizing) - This is our garden. A lot of people may think that growing things isn't interesting, but I use it as a form of like, calming. The COVID year has been a little difficult. I felt really isolated because there was a point in time where I wasn't talking to anybody. So it was just me, alone, nothing. - [Alma] Scarlet, she's very smart. She's incredibly helpful. I truly believe she's going to be one of the people that definitely takes over the world. COVID, I feel has broken children down. So what I would like for Scarlet to get at the farm is hopefully learning how to reunify. - Ready? (fence rattling) - [Cesar] The farm is being built in stages. The first stage was the planting of the fruit trees, like the apples and the figs. And we did that last year. They're starting to bear a little fruit already. - [Building Helper] There he goes. He's got a whole method now. - [Cesar] This summer we'll be getting the vegetable beds up and growing. (cars driving by in background) (birds chirping over traffic) Today is June 25th, it's our first volunteer day at the farm with the kids from West Side. Okay, so we're going to take a little tour over here. The plan is for us to work on the farm every Friday for the next few months. So these are all fruit trees. There's little baby apples on this right now. You can touch them. It's all, yeah. - [Zahmir] I never seen a real life apple tree. That's a good (indistinct). - [Cesar] Yeah. - [Shemiah] I've seen a peach tree. - [Cesar] They seem to be really interested, you know, growing their own food, seeing the process happen. These are peaches. We have pears. - [Student] Aw yeah. - We have figs. - Everything my Mama would wanna bring home. - [Cesar] So, eventually this whole thing will just be real shady. - It's gonna be a lot. - It'll be huge, yeah. - [Zahmir] You'll have to cut this for real though. - [Cesar] We have 24 beds over here. In these beds we'll be putting in the soil and planting our seedlings. (student banter drowned out by wind and traffic) - [Cesar] One bed is filled by seven of those. - [Zahmir] By seven barrows? - [Cesar] Yeah. - [Zahmir] Damn! - Right, so. - [Zahmir] We was in here having fun digging up the dirt. Like, that was tough. (student exclaims at overturned barrow) (relaxed music) - Like Honestly, I never thought that you could build this in the city. You know what I'm saying? Cause I never had like, you know, never even seen something like this, ever. (upbeat music) - [Scarlet] To find out that we're already growing trees and stuff. And some of these trees are actually producing. It's like super amazing to watch, because it's like, oh, well I have a piece of my home right here at school. - [Student] We've given up, everybody (indistinct) right now. - [Cesar] We're working on finishing, filling the raised beds with soil. Once that's done, planting plants in there. (upbeat music) Happy Friday. We're here. These are seedlings. The top of the soil on your little plant. You want it to be level with the dirt. So when you make your hole, you want it to fit perfectly inside of the hole. This is collards. And in the middle of this is chives. This is kind of like an onion. You could just... and eat it. (indistinct student comment) Mm hmm. It's making my mouth burn. (students laugh) - And put like two or three seeds in it and then just cover the hole. - Okay. - So you guys can do the whole thing until you run out of seeds, yeah. - Okay. - Okay. Today was actually really fun. I planted stuff like basil and rosemary, and all my brothers were with me. My whole family is doing this with me. - You could put it in your food when your cooking. In your eggs. - [Scarlet] Today, I did meet some new people. Zahmir, he came in a little late. - I had to take the bus. It was a long time. - He came in with some nice energy. You know, talking to the plant, rapping to the plant. - It's my plant. This is my main, water my main. This my plant. (gardeners laugh) - This my main water my main. - Honestly, it's just like really fun. - They say music make the world go round. So it might make plans to grow too. You never know. I've been coming to the farm about three or four weeks now. (Christina knocking on the door) My family, it's getting hard. You know what I'm saying? I got a baby sister. So it was like, be trying to make sure everything good for her. Hey there, you asleep? I want to make sure my people got everything. Cause we ain't even had nothing. We got Neisha, my little sister. If you put in the work. And if you make sure that you got a nice head on your shoulders. People want to see it, people want to see the work you put in. Like, and you can't, you can't tell people the work you put it in. just do it. And it's gonna come. (cerebral music) - [Cesar] Today, we'll be doing some work that's pretty important. It's called mulching. (cerebral music) We put plants in the raised beds 21 days ago. So I think almost exactly three weeks now. These grasses, pull'em out. These little blades right here, these. - [Student] Are those, pull them out too huh? - [Cesar] Yeah, that's weeds too. - I don't think there's any more, oh yes there is.(Shemiah laughs) - When we started working on the farm, it was only Shemiah and Kion. - Is it dry? - It needs some water. - [Kathy] But Azeriah was interested. So I brought him. And then Sean said, "oh, I'm going to come along. I want to see what you guys are doing." So now I have five little people come in with me every Friday. - [Shemiah] Before West Side High, I used to live in North Carolina. In North Carolina my mom had a whole like, garden thing. So we used to plant all the time. (serene music) Since I moved here, we haven't really planted anything. There's a little one. What I miss about it is the time I spent with my mom growing it and picking the stuff and eating it. - [Cesar] You guys wanna weed that big pile of dirt on the other side. (Students vocally affirm) - [Zahmir] Let's go. - [Student] Had to say something. - [Zahmir] He said y'all had to say something. (students laughing) Yeah come on gang. Come on gang. Be reckless! (upbeat music) - [Scarlet] I've liked planting for a long time. And what really got me into it was that my mom got sick. - While she was sick she was teaching us how to plant. If you notice that around a lot of our communities, like we don't really have fresh fruits and vegetables. A lot of our fruits and vegetables also have all of these additives in it to make it keep in color and everything. But it's not really good for us to have. (family says zucchini in unison) So we would just plant and have our own food. (relaxed music) (hose spraying) - [Zahmir] I already knew all of them. But yeah, I got to knew a side that I never seen of them. And I'm talking about how they just so focused, and relaxed, calm. It's always good to be around people like that. (upbeat music) - Oh yes, this feels really good. And like I keep saying it's therapeutic. You know, and I keep thinking next week when we come, okay, this plant is going to be bigger. And I can't wait to see when the fruits start forming. Oh my goodness. (birds chirping) (serene music) - [Cesar] Yeah, just like that, that's great. - [Student] And you said this one right? - [Cesar] Uh, this one. (serene music) Do you want some mint, some basil? - All of it. - All of it? Okay cool, I'll show you. - [Kathy] I'ma put it in my salad. - [Student] Oh! (serene music) - [Principal Cook] Y'all was like little parents. You know, just waiting for the seed to grow. - When they, when we did these beds. The plants were like this big. - [Principal Cook] All right. Yeah, they were tiny, tiny, tiny. - I'm kind of proud of that. We really did this though. Like I know we did this, you know what I mean? - Yeah. (upbeat music) (family talking amongst themselves) - [Scarlet's Father] In the course, over the summer, as she was working the farm. I've seen the change of her being more vocal, more social about things. Which is a good thing. Because now, we get to actually get a peering into my daughter's mind. Instead of trying to guess. (Alma and Scarlet laugh) - This is a... - [Woman] Sage. - Sage, right. And this mint right here, this my favorite. I ain't gonna lie. I been with this all the time. - [Christina] I was hoping that Zahmir would, you know, finish and start this whole project. - [Zahmir] I did. - [Christina] He did finish the whole thing. You did. From start to finish you did a good job. - Thank you. - [Kion] I learned how to plant. How to grow crops. I never thought I would find myself doing that. It's a good hobby, it's a good experience. - [Shemiah] Being outside it just feels so nice. - [Kathy] Doing it with my kids, this was a marvelous experience for us. I hope next summer they're doing something again. Because we want to be part of this. - [Woman] High school growing something like an actual plant right? - [Student] Yeah. - [Principal Cook] My idea was to have an urban farm, and I was skeptical. I mean, I'm on South Warren Drive, one of the busiest corridors in the City of Newark. But to my surprise, my baby's did it man. (uplifting music) For them to come every Friday man. Is a testament to the will and the desire for them to be great. It's all about exposure. They don't have to plant anything. I just think it taught them resilience. They realize what they can do. They saw something come from a seedling, to something that they were eating now, that's edible. (uplifting music) They're passionate about it, and they love it. And now they feel like they're making a difference man. We gave that to them. (uplifting music) (Zahmir rapping)