Right now, the program is in place in three city schools: Alcott in Lincoln Park, Hammond Elementary, located a few blocks west of Pilsen at 2819 W. 21st Place, and McCorkle Elementary, located in Bronzeville near 44th and State.

For now, only the Alcott school has a partial garden. There are plans to have eighteen plots at the school, one for every classroom to work on. Christian says the other two schools will have gardens by next fall. In five years, Christian's hopes to have a garden in all of Chicago's 623 public schools.

Inside Alcott School, Christian, whose catering business and restaurant is based out of a storefront at 1103 W. Grand, is fielding questions from Jenny Vincent's 5th grade class. The students ask him about what he likes to make (stock and any dish that can be made in one pot), whether he's ever made fish head soup (yes), and the easiest thing he's ever made (a salads with organic greens, lemon, pepper, and oil).

"The plan is to have all organic food in this cafeteria in January, says Christian. "Nothing is made from scratch here. So I want them to come in with raw fresh green beans and steam them here instead of opening up a can."

"No matter how much these dieticians or me talk about food, they won't eat new food, says Christian. "They have to reconnect with the earth through a garden. It's the only way."

Back at Alcott School, ten year-old Olivia Alden says she's learned something new through the program that she passed on to her unsuspecting mom.

"I told my mom that pumpkin was a fruit," says Alden. "She thought it was a vegetable."

Jalen Williams, says he knows almost immediately when and how certain types of food affect him.

"When I eat junk food, I feel like my tooth is hurting and my stomach is hurting me," says the ten year-old.

His classmate, ten year old Grace Palmer says that she too feels differently after eating the sweet stuff.

"If you eat a candy bar, you feel good at first. Then twenty or thirty minutes later, you want to take a nap," says Palmer. "And then when you eat broccoli, you want to eat more and you won't get sick when you eat more."

Along with planting, maintaining, and harvesting the garden, Vincent, who teaches language arts as well as social studies, hopes to use the food as an academic tool across the school's curriculum.

"We write about it a lot. We do poetry with it. Poetry is a really good vehicle for it," says Vincent, who's class did some of the soil testing and the planting last year. "They know how important it is to have healthy food choices. They know they feel better when they've eaten a healthier meal."

While some organic foods and drinks can't be found everywhere, and they can cost more at the grocery store, Vincent says the program stresses more than virtues of eating organic foods, adding that the effort nudges the students to think before they eat.

"Just because they don't have access to organic stuff doesn't mean they can't make better choices for themselves. I've seen them do that," says Vincent. "Even in the lunch line, I've seen them take the healthier stuff or they won't take some of the stuff they don't think is healthy. It's very interesting to watch them."

The Organic School Program is paid for through a variety of sources, including local school councils, the Chicago Botanic Gardens, private individuals, Green Corps, and Green Net, among others. The estimated cost of running the program, which also calls for specific consultants and general operating expenses, is estimated at a little over $1 millio for the 2007-2008 school year.

That could be seen as a large expense, considering that companies like Coca-Cola and others often pay schools large fees for the privilege of stocking the schools with their own food and drinks. Christian says he doesn't have necessarily have a problem with that.