About The Schoolyard Table

The Schoolyard Table is an independent reference on food education, school gardens and neighborhood food access in American cities. It is written for adults: parents, teachers and school staff, community gardeners, university students and volunteers, and people who organize community programs. Its purpose is to explain a subject clearly enough for a reader to understand the terms, the program structure and the source behind a statement.

Reading the pages

Pages introduce a topic, distinguish related ideas and point to the public references that describe them. Official sources are named within the prose, close to the claims they support. Figures appear with the source that supplies them and with the period they refer to when the source states one. A number is not presented as a description of a different place, population or program.

Research receives the same treatment. A page identifies what a study or review examined, reports its findings as the authors' findings, and includes the limits stated in the source. A measured association, a review of varied programs and a description of an agency's aims are different kinds of evidence. The writing keeps those differences visible. It uses paraphrases rather than quotations, and does not turn findings into promises about a reader or a local activity.

Finding a subject

The school section brings together education, meals, gardens, produce stands and cooking classes. Neighborhood food covers markets, produce shares, city growing, food access and programs for adults and older adults. Programs and people concerns the organization of activities, youth roles, nutrition education, university partnerships and volunteering. The body and activity section supplies a separate discussion of movement and the structures of the body.

The reference section contains history, law, further reading, questions and a glossary. The field guide connects the main program models, while the annotated reading list helps readers find a source by subject. The questions page gives short explanations that lead into fuller pages. These routes suit different starting points: a familiar activity, an unfamiliar term or a question about a public program.

The reference's role

This reference runs no school or community program. It schedules no activities, sells nothing, accepts no donations or submissions, and collects no information from readers. It has no contact form or participation process. Descriptions of classes, gardens, jobs, markets or food benefits explain those subjects; they do not identify services available through this website.

The pages give no medical, dietary or legal advice. Food frameworks are explained as educational subjects, and research about activity is reported as research. Practical soil and kitchen safety material is attributed to the agency that publishes it. The reference does not supply a personal eating plan, an exercise prescription or a judgment about an individual's eligibility for assistance.