The Problem
To help those in our community experiencing food insecurity by growing produce in our school\'s garden.
Our Plan
Re-invigorating a 10 year old garden to yield robust produce that will be used to help others. Creating hands-on opportunities for the entire student population of the school (close to 400) and creating a community of doers that have the knowledge, confidence and ability to solve problems.
Themes Addressed
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Community
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Compassion
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Education
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Food Insecurity
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The Benefit
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People
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Environment
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Here is how the project went:
In the spring, we successfully renovated a 10-year old raised bed garden within the courtyard of the Village School in Marblehead. This garden will be utilized by the school community of close to 500 students in grades 4-6. 80% of the crops grown in the garden will be donated to the local food pantry to help those experiencing food insecurity.
Through this project I/we learned:
Students worked to improve this community space that will benefit them and the greater community. They were excited by the mission of the garden, and all truly enjoyed working in the garden.
What I/we might change:
We had such interest from the teachers that, at times, we had too many "cooks in the kitchen". It was challenging to have close to 30 students at a time working in the garden, but we broke the chores into 3 "stations" to properly manage them.
My/our favorite part of this project was:
Seeing students understand the benefit of what they were doing, get their hands dirty, and not want to leave!
Some tips, tricks or fun facts about the project:
It has been inspirational to see how much real teaching can come from a garden. Over the summer, I have been working on curriculum that is tied closely to what the students are learning in the classroom, and this year, the beginning of "year 2" will be exciting to see how much more we can accomplish.