Jesse joined CLF in 2009 as a work-study student while getting his MPH at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.  Currently, Jesse is working on writing a Food System Curriculum for High School students and a study of the impact of Meatless Mondays on the families of students in the Baltimore City Public Schools.  Before joining CLF, Jesse was a high school teacher in Richmond, Calif.  At Richmond High, Jesse began an Urban Agriculture and Food Systems program with his students, which now boasts a functioning Urban garden, greenhouse, and a 4000 square foot school farm.  The program gave the students graduation credit for running a small CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) for families at the school, where the students grew, tended, harvested and gleaned all of the produce.

While at Hopkins, Jesse’s capstone project was composed of new primary research on the impact of the program in Richmond on the students involved.  The Capstone, titled Students Growing Food:  The Study of a Food-Production Focused Intervention in a California High School:  Differences in Food Habits and Attitudes between Program and Control Students will be posted as a blog soon.

Jesse looks forward to working at the confluence of schools and the food system, working to connect young people with food and their own power.

Top Blog Posts

• The Push for More School Food Production Gardens continues…
• Baltimore School District Food Survey Reveals Parents Want Healthier Options for their Kids
• 2 School Farms in 2 Days
• Beyond “Museum” Gardens
• Jesse Kurtz-Nicholl’s Interview with Urban Ag High School Student, Ana Araujo
• Farming our Schools
• Pedometers from Healthy Monday delivered to Richmond High Students
• Food Access Solutions: Urban Agriculture, Local Food and Community Development
• Exposing the role of the food industry in conditioning us to overeat, but calling on individuals to change?
• Richmond’s Urban Agriculture Institutes:  A First Stage Impact Study
• Meatless Monday Launches at Johns Hopkins University
• Childhood obesity may have leveled off, but disparities are getting worse for adolescents in California?
• Urban Foraging in Asheville, NC
• Looking at Food System Issues through a ‘Food Justice Lens’
• Are you learning your food habits at home? Doesn’t look like it.
• Greetings from Cuba!
• Cuban Pesos: A Famer’s Market Experience
• Shovel Ready: Cuban Urban Agriculture as Job Creator