From the streets to Juvie, these detainees are living life on the inside now under constant supervision. They’re in for felonies like assault and battery, carjacking, auto theft and more, most of it gang-related.
You might not expect to see them delicately folding wet rice paper to create spring rolls from produce they raised themselves. But that was the scene last Thursday at the East Mesa Juvenile Detention Facility. Executive Chef Alex Carballo of the Stone Brewing Company had just demonstrated how to make Vietnamese Spring Rolls with the bok choy, radishes and other vegetables the detainees had pulled from the ground that morning.
The detainees are students in a new horticultural program that includes Regional Occupational Program accreditation. This program started last October and is supported by Healthy Works, a County campaign which promotes healthy eating and increased physical activity among other goals. They are working in collaboration with the San Diego County Childhood Obesity Initiative, a program of Community Health Improvement Partners.
It’s a dream come true for Supervising Probation Officer Tyra Myles who has wanted something like this for three years. While these boys go to school, get counseling, learn how to be better citizens and much more, Myles says a lot of it is getting talked at and she wanted something more active. “The garden program is multi-dimensional, it’s therapeutic, it’s educational, and it’s job skills, all of that put together.”
The 30 students in the program range in age from 16 to 19 years old. They’ve been in the system awhile and are getting ready to transition to life on the outside. For many, it’s a crossroads and they know it.
This program allowed them to learn something new, build a garden from the ground up. They assembled raised beds, set up the sprinkler system, planted seedlings and tended them until the lettuce, radishes, carrots, onions and other vegetables burst with flavor. “Some boys have really thrived going out there,” said Myles. “They are just so proud that they can grow something themselves.”
One 19-year-old student says working in the garden is fun. “I love to eat. We saw these plants as seedlings and now all the sudden, they’re full grown. It is the work of our own hands.”
As a way of giving back to the community, Chef Carballo expected to give a talk about the benefits of cooking local, organic produce. What he didn’t expect, was the rapt attention of the students who wanted to know everything about him and how he’s made it in the culinary world. An hour talk quickly ran to an hour and a half. Probation staff members were amazed he could keep their attention for so long. “They told me, you don’t know these kids, well, yeah, maybe I do,” said Chef Carballo. He himself grew up in a tough neighborhood. “This guy’s got it together, what did he do?”
So he told them; how his love of eating turned into a love of cooking, how he worked hard in the kitchen, volunteered to do anything to become a better chef, put in long hours and now that he’s executive chef, what he expects from his staff of 50-people, how he’s mentored dishwashers into higher positions and overall, how to succeed. He told the students that if they worked hard enough, they could make a career for themselves in this line of work as well.
The kids ate it up, one going so far as to ask Carballo for a job.
Carballo credits his parents with helping him focus on what was important to him. “Focus was cooking for me. It got me hooked and it pulled me in, so if I was able to hook two or three kids in, then I know I did something great today.”
Whether the opportunities lie in horticulture or the culinary world, Myles wants the students to know there are choices. “Many of these boys are very sheltered,” said Myles. “They only know their neighborhoods, their family and their culture so I want to open up their world to something else. Maybe none of them will do it but they have the opportunity to do it.”
Our 19-year-old student says the skills he’s learning will always be useful. “If I own a house someday, I know how to set up my own sprinkler system; I know how to grow my own garden. I know how to save a little money by growing natural organic tomatoes, because tomatoes are delicious! I know all this stuff for future use, whether it becomes a career or not.”
