Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/578674
Now O'Grady was primed for a new challenge and sensed this project would give him a sense of purpose. With the drive and intensity he brings to all he undertakes, he and a group of volunteers created the school's fi rst edible garden. "Hipsters that we are in Los Feliz and Silverlake, we want- ed to change the image of the school by making it so er," he said. And there's no question those eff orts have been success- ful. Over a fi ve-year period King's Academic Performance Index shot from middle 600s to 843 on a scale of 200–1,000. " at's a meteoric rise," O'Grady noted. King also became an Environmental Studies Magnet. ENRICH LA TAKES ROOT A man of action, O'Grady ran for city council in District 4, the Hollywood/ Silverlake/Los Feliz area, in 2011, hoping to have a greater impact on his adopted city. When he lost that bid he looked for an alter- native way to serve his community. e King garden project had been so successful (and L.A.'s graduation rates were so dismal—just 56 percent in 2011) that O'Grady decided to expand the program. "What worked for my children and for friends," he says, "being an Irish Catholic and weighed down with guilt at all times, I thought, Why not try to help other schools throughout the city?" He decided to take his urban garden idea to the next level and "get a garden in every Los Angeles school." Enrich LA began that same year as an extended dream to help other public schools "so en," and in the process teach their students to appreciate whole foods. O'Grady invested $20,000 of his own money into starting the new citywide non- profi t. With a passion to help others, he and LEED-accredited architect (and amateur beekeeper) Leonardo Chalupowicz began building gardens and enlisting volunteers. When other schools heard about the posi- tive impact on grades and school spirit, they wanted in. It's probably no coincidence that in the fi rst three years of Enrich LA's oper- ation, LAUSD graduation rates rose to 70 percent—still low, but a huge improvement. "Some of these schools have metal [bars] on the windows. ey are like prisons. All a child needs to see is someone looking out for him, doing something for him, then show- ing up again and again. I'm going to get my hands dirty, dig gardens and be there for ev- erything we do," promised O'Grady. Even Whole Foods Market got excited about the project. "With the right goals and leadership, a garden is incredibly in- tegral to the learning environment of any school," said Nona Evans of Whole Kids, a division of Whole Foods. With the shared vision of creating healthy change, Whole Kids began off ering garden grants 24 wholelifetimes.com