|
Garden Project
Year Two of the School Garden Project
“A bit of loving tender care enabling seeds to
grow and thrive. The same philosophy applies to caring for our
students…We establish roots in our relationships with them, we
establish them in basic skills in math, reading and writing, and
then we challenge them to acquire the skills necessary to compete in
a complicated world of diversity.” This was written by Dr. Kimberly
Theller in our School Garden Project year 1 introduction.
In year one of the garden project, many school
and community members collaborated to create a successful experience
for our students. Projects throughout the year consisted of
building and planting raised beds, and our first hydroponic garden,
a very unique growing system, was purchased and planted. Students
learned first hand where their food comes from, how to care for
living plants and were able to watch with amazement how a little
seed could grow and develop into something that when mature, would
taste so good.
FCS Superintendent Dr. Traci McCaudy is very
supportive about this project and encourages its growth and
development. The group consisted of myself, Dr. Theller, the
Fremont City Schools Maintenance Department, Mr. Dave Rapp, and
Denise Morehart both teachers at Ross High, Mrs. Mae Dell Leake New
Directions and Fremont Innovations After School and Summer Program
Coordinator and WSOS Community Action Organization, Sara Sherick and
Phil Collison of the Sandusky County Juvenile Courts, Adkins Fence,
Lowe’s Store, Brubaker’s Farm Market, Otto & Urban Greenhouses,
Donna Foss Master Gardner, Rebecca Singer Center For Innovative Food
Technology, the Child Nutrition Department.
The students were involved in many different
aspects of the garden project. They planted the seeds in the
greenhouse, built the raised beds, transplanted the vegetables in
the raised beds, staked the tomatoes, weeded the raised beds, and
also helped to harvest the vegetables.
Several opportunities occurred allowing the
students to help prepare the vegetables including a family event, a
community event, for their own meals and tasting events, and for
distributing to community organizations, Students also used these
same veggies to help our Child Nutrition Dept. to develop the 3
recipes that we developed for the national recipe challenge titled
the Healthy Kids Recipe Challenge.
In year two we plan to continue with the same
garden team of school and community members while we expand our
gardens. This year we are looking for grant opportunities to buy
materials to begin a composting/food recycling program that will
allow us to recycle kitchen food scraps. The compost made from this
will be used to enrich the raised bed gardens.
We have purchased additional vertical
hydroponic units which will be put in the courtyards at Ross as well
as in the greenhouse during the winter. This will give the kitchen
staff access to fresh herbs and vegetables through the winter
season.
One of our team members has written a grant
that will allow us to establish a small fruit orchard this year.
Year one was a building year with much effort
spent on building our raised beds and learning how to care for the
dirt and hydroponic gardens.
Year two will be our expansion year allowing us
to plant gourmet varieties of vegetables and herbs. You will notice that we have some very different
vegetables for the students to try. It will give them the sense of
the diversity in the vegetable world.
Michaeleen Rogers
Child Nutrition Supervisor
|
