In Paris, my college is a vegetable patch

In the heart of Paris, a few meters from the ring road, this college overlooks the garden. The priority education establishment, located in a popular district of the French capital, is home to 4,500 m2 of trees, flowers, fruits and vegetables. Agricultural production started in 2014.

After the canteen or between lessons, the pupils cultivate their small plots of land in the playground. They garden what they have chosen to sow themselves. Like most Parisians, Pierre Mendès-France's middle school students grew up surrounded by concrete, and cherish these 100% organic gardens.

All year round, they are guided by professionals from the Veni Verdi association. They are the ones who revalued the old wasteland into green spaces. Many of these middle school students come from disadvantaged backgrounds. Out of 700 pupils, 50 volunteer to garden. For others, in great social and academic difficulties, it is an alternative to exclusion from college. The sanctions generally come from 15 to 20 hours of general work in the garden with the Veni Verdi teams. Several dozen students would have avoided exclusion and resumed normal schooling.

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