The Urban Farm recently acquired 14 chicks, who have been quite the hit since arriving at CHS. At first, the baby chicks stayed in Davis’s classroom, but following spring break, they moved outside to the Urban Farm’s chicken coops. All 14 chicks are hens, and when they are fully mature, Davis expects the flock to produce around a dozen eggs per day. 

“They're the rock stars of the farm,” said Davis. “We had them on a live webcam when they were little, but it kept crashing on my computer. When it was working, you would walk around school, and every teacher had it up on the board while kids were working.”

The chickens can also have a calming effect on students. 

“You're inside in class all day, so coming outside and being able to touch plants, plant plants, and be with the chickens, it's a de-stressor,” said Anna Ryall, a senior who is in Davis’s Urban Farming and Marketing II class at CHS. “I’ve really noticed that, and it's been really helpful.”

Because of their broad appeal, the chickens can also play a role in the marketing aspect of Davis’s classes. When they are not planting seeds, working in the garden or tending to the chickens, Urban Farming and Marketing students are learning about how to navigate the ever-changing landscape of social media, product placement, and promotion. 

“This is technically a marketing class,” Davis said. “The marketing obviously ties in. We have the kids working on our website. We have the kids working on our social media. When we have the plant sale, they create all of the signs. We talk about product placement and pricing. We cover all of those marketing things throughout the year.” 

With that growth, Davis wants to make the Urban Farming and Marketing program more self-sustaining. One of the ways the program is trying to accomplish that goal is through its annual plant sale, which takes place this Saturday (May 2) from 9:30am-12:30pm. This year, around 35 different types of plants will be available at the sale, which is taking place in the parking lot by the CHS baseball field. During the plant sale, visitors also can take a tour of the Urban Farm, which will be holding its first annual open house.  

“With our plant sale, we're slowly becoming a little more self-sufficient,” Davis said. “Our plant sale makes us more than enough money for a basic year of operation of seeds, soil, trays, pots, and things like that. We're able to take care of ourselves.”

Davis also wants the Urban Farm to help take care of some of the school community’s nutritional needs by providing fresh vegetables to the CHS cafeteria. 

“Our main goal that we're pushing towards is a garden-to-cafeteria model,” Davis said. “We're hoping to pilot it this spring and have some of our spring crops augment the cafeteria. We can highlight that some of this food was grown here at school, and then slowly start to ramp our production up.” 

Davis said a garden-to-cafeteria model at CHS would have multiple benefits. 

“I really want the kids to have access to a true field where a commercial market garden operates, so they can see that true aspect versus a home backyard garden,” Davis said. “But I also really want the cafeteria food to be healthier and more fresh. And you can't get any more fresh and local than in the backyard of this school.”