RFS programming began - September 2006 

TNL Liaison: Ms. De Los Santos, 4th grade Bilingual teacher

Number of children served each month: 528 pre-k thru 5th grade students receive monthly classes in the Recipe Garden; 4th graders also participate in the monthly Chefs in SchoolsTM  culinary classes.

Other Programming: RFS and Briscoe partner to have a monthly Fun Friday event in the afternoons on the 3rd Friday.  The P.E. team provide a fun physical activity and a RFS provides a healthy snack cooking demo.

In June 2010, we offered Eat This! Summer CampTM  for 20 children in the 4th and 5th grades.  

RFS Chefs Advisory Board Members who have taught at Briscoe: 

Scott Castel-Brenners, Bryan Caswell-Reef, Michael Dimaggi-Rockwood Room, Chris Garcia-Houston City Club, Elouise Jones-Ouisie's, Jim Manning, Brendon Treanor-Reef.

 

January 2008 - parent and child volunteer garden day with 15 volunteers to clean up old garden beds 

October 2009 - 80 GE Volunteers built extensive gardens, planted trees, built garden sheds and benches. 

Ongoing - RFS works to enhance our programs at Briscoe through collaboration with Can Do Houston 

The Briscoe Recipe Garden includes a 400 square foot courtyard garden we designed for the kindergartners, and four 15x4 foot raised beds for other grade levels. In addition, Briscoe is thankful to be the recipient of two portable garden beds sponsored by "GroPods," that will be tested over the school year.  5th grade students will be the leaders on this exciting project.

Wellness Committee Update from Briscoe: We have worked on beautifying our school campus, designing a water schedule for the garden, putting together a weather station for all science teachers to use, and empowering the teachers to use the Recipe Garden as a part of their day. We have also participated in a collaborative wellness outreach with CanDo to extend our influence to parents. Our Wellness Committee is actively considering organized participation in several neighborhood "fun walks."  We continue to partner with CanDo to encourage promoting health and fitness at a community level.

We know our message is getting through in part because: The most stubborn student we ever encountered at Briscoe had a Mom who brought him a fast food lunch in the middle of our cooking class every month, all year long. He refused to taste anything from class and would drop out of activity to concentrate on his burger or fried chicken. During the last class of the year, our Iron Chef Competition, he participated in the whole process for the first time--excited, engaged. His Mom walked in with his lunch as usual, but this time he refused it. He turned away from his Mom and vigorously shook his head, no! Here we thought that he had not been paying attention all year, but he decided on his own that he no longer wanted the fast food lunch. He sat there with a big smile on his face and really enjoyed the healthy meal he had just created with his fellow students. We know our message is getting through to students, families, and the staff alike because of the overwhelming excitement shown by everyone to get the garden in shape after the summer.  Several teachers and families have built gardens at home and are now gardening regularly at home.  Anne, being a garden expert, is happy to be a resource to the teachers and families as they have questions about their home garden endeavors and she especially looks forward to hearing stories about their success.  

Chef Ronnie's Update: - "RFS has helped create a different awareness at Briscoe, from the healthy eating messages we have posted throughout the hallways and cafeteria to our beautiful Recipe Gardens. The teachers now want to get out of their classrooms more often and into the gardens to stretch their students' minds and make the garden a regular part of the day. I encourage them to use the garden for simple things like taking the class outside to read, going on a bug hunt, or observing the life cycles of caterpillars. As a result, the students are learning responsibility and respect for their plants, and flowers. We are thrilled to announce the Briscoe Elementary has been recognized as an Exemplary school this year, something they worked very hard to achieve.  Principal Gonzalez shared with us that, "The partnership between Briscoe Elementary and Recipe for Success to education children is the perfect example of how core disciplines such as math, science, and writing can be delivered through an interdisciplinary approach from the homeroom to the garden to the culinary classroom.  I see it working and Briscoe is a testament to how healthy children make for healthy learners."