Bridging Barnard Generations

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On the corner of 119th and Amsterdam, smack-dab in the middle of Columbia’s campus, sits an unassuming community garden that Meredith Hill-Patel ’07, her students, and the community founded back in 2010. Transformed from a scruffy abandoned plot to the home of chicks as well as a hearty vegetable garden, the spot serves as the cornerstone of a career centered on food justice, education, and community.

“I grew up in northeastern Mass, surrounded by nature, watching my mom garden,” she says. “I think that’s what led me to finding ways to get my students gardening.”

A former theatre and education major at Barnard, Hill-Patel began teaching sixth grade English at Columbia Secondary School, where project-based learning, like gardening, was celebrated. She would go on to found MS 371 SEED Harlem — a public middle school focused on environmental and food systems education — during the height of the pandemic.

After navigating the effects of long COVID, Hill-Patel found her way back to New England, where she founded RootEd, an educational consulting organization that supports teachers in bringing garden-based and food-justice learning into classrooms. This summer, she is remotely mentoring student interns Michelle Rahman ’26 and Zahra Kamal ’26, helping them connect their academic interests to real-world impact.

Rahman, a computer science major with a minor in public policy, launched a vegan cooking Instagram account during the pandemic to help her navigate her halal diet. As an intern, her interest in food melds neatly with data analysis. RootEd serves over 200 schools, providing food systems literacy and professional learning for teachers. At the end of each term, the participants provide test scores and a host of pre- and post- surveys to gauge the effectiveness of the professional learning courses in both teaching the new content and the shifting attitudes around food systems literacy.

“I saw Michelle’s résumé through Beyond Barnard and I was like, ‘I need to talk to this student,’” says Hill-Patel. “I’ve worked with some amazing spreadsheet geniuses — and then into the Zoom walks Michelle to share her data analysis and spreadsheet knowledge.”

Kamal, a neuroscience and behavior major and public policy minor, works closely with Hill-Patel as a teaching assistant. Hill-Patel was thrilled to see that Kamal had started a community garden herself in high school. “I think it is so powerful for teachers learning about bringing gardens to schools to hear from a student who did that herself,” she says. “The whole reason that I got started with RootEd is because I saw their mission statement and found that it really, really aligned with my own values,” Kamal says.

And while their values align, the practical thing Kamal says she learned from Hill-Patel not only exemplifies but transcends what it is to combine food, gardening, and teaching. “She’s such a great active listener, and she’s amazing at making someone feel heard,” says Kamal. “The more you make people feel heard, the better you are at getting them to share.”