2009-12-24T16:36:00.004-06:00

I concluded my thru-hike on December 21! Read about it here .

2009-05-18T01:33:00.012-05:00

Dear Friends,

In July I begin a long walk from Mount Katahdin to Springer Mountain, hoping to tread fourteen states and all 2,178 miles of the Appalachian Trail. Constant movement through "the green tunnel" promises adventure, but is also a departure from Benton MacKaye's original vision of productive, work camp communities linked by footpath. The modern hike precludes connectedness and devotion to a specific place other than the AT itself. Finding sustenance in all manner of packages and corner stores, my thoughts will undoubtedly drift to places I’ve lived, where commitment to healthy minds and bodies has sprouted organic communities.

In the Rio Grande Valley, where I spent two years teaching, this communion through food and learning has taken root. Friends at IDEA Public Schools have developed Outdoor Classrooms, involving young people in the growth, care, consumption, and biology of nutritious food. In a holistic manner rarely achieved in industrial society, students learn the relationship between these processes and their own physical and intellectual development. The charter schools' three campus farms in Brownsville, Edinburg and Donna provide fresh, organic produce for school meals and real-world laboratories for academic instruction at every grade level, every day.

In support of my walk, and to fill my absence from community as I hike southbound on the AT, I ask you to contribute to IDEA Outdoor Classrooms. Your investment will enable nutritional and instructional enhancement of the program through shelter, fruit orchard and edible schoolyard development. IDEA students, 76% of whom qualify for free/reduced price lunch, live in counties where diabetes rates are thrice the national average and over half of adults have not attained a high school degree. A contribution, per mile walked, of one dime ($217.80) or penny ($21.78) will promote healthy minds and bodies for these students.

Thank you for supporting them, and me, in this endeavor.

Sincerely,
Priya

We civilized ones also, whether urban or rural, are potentially helpless as canaries in a cage. The ability to cope with nature directly - unshielded by the weakening wall of civilization - is one of the admitted needs of modern times... The ability to sleep and cook in the open is a good step forward. But "scouting" should not stop there. This is but a feint step from our canary bird existence. It should strike far deeper than this. We should seek the ability not only to cook food but to raise food with less aid - and less hindrance - from the complexities of commerce. And this is becoming daily of increasing practical importance.

Benton MacKaye, 1921

"An Appalachian Trail: A Project in Regional Planning"

Benton MacKaye on the AT

Hike for Greens