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Happy farmer kitchen composter kit1/3/2024 ![]() ![]() Students remain enthusiastic about caring for the garden. We believe we have successfully triggered our students’ interest in gardening, growing and cooking. The Farm to School grant has enabled our students, staff, teachers and community to be a part of maintaining our school garden. In order to make the program more sustainable, we will also be working hard to establish successful partnerships with other local farms and suppliers. Winter months have been a challenge although we have had a good harvest of some hardy greens. So far we have tried to use up the produce from our own garden as much as possible. ![]() The majority of growing season is when school is not in session we will need to have a better strategy so our student and parent community stays motivated to “adopt a plot”. However, we will continue to work towards making this dream of ours a reality in the near future.Ī majority of our students are making healthy food choices with lunch and snack options since the start of the program, but we do believe more work needs to be done for continued lifestyle changes. Physical space has been a challenge in our small school this past year. Our vision, when we started the program, was to complement our existing hot lunch program with a salad bar using local food sources with the help of our students. – Megumi, parentĪs with every new project, we have had our fair share of hiccups and challenges. She is more open to trying new vegetables and the program has had a positive impact on packed lunches”. ![]() “L’s idea about fresh/raw vegetables has changed since the start of the Farm to School program. Previously M mostly showed interest in baking treats, so the interest in vegetables is very much appreciated!” – Andrea, parent. I get him to make them! He is proud to teach me how to make them, saying things like, “you have to include the red stems because they’re really tasty!”, and “you don’t want to waste this part of the plant, so you can…” (I don’t remember the details, but it involved making something else out of it). ![]() He talks about the vegetables he tries, and asks me to buy them and make the recipes. He loves it because it involves physically interacting with the school garden and making tasty food from it. “ M loves participating in Farm to School. What our parent community thinks we have accomplished… Parents and students continue to weed water and maintain the garden plots during this time and harvest the produce. With a successful farm to school program we have also been able to motivate our student and parent community to “Adopt a plot” during summer months when school is not in session. In the process, we have received a positive feedback from our school board who sees this as a great model as to what a school garden should look like. We have also been successful in implementing school wide composting measures. With the Farm to School BC grant and help from parent volunteers, teachers and students, we have been able to get all the students involved in growing an edible food garden including planting, watering, harvesting, cooking and sharing. We are in the planning stages of building a bee and butterfly garden, which will further enhance our students’ knowledge about pollination. The students have gained from both formal and informal lessons throughout the process. Our entire community has been key to our success. We at QEA are very happy and proud of our achievements in the past year. The students have also had the opportunity to learn more about nutrition, food groups, meal planning and healthy snacks through fun and creative activities. We have continued to grow and maintain our school garden (6 raised beds) harvesting, food safety and preparation and food sharing. We have used the expertise of community partners and parent volunteers to educate the students on gardening, nutrition and cooking activities in an effort to cut down costs. Our idea was to develop and enhance the students’ understanding of food and healthy eating through creative, hands on learning. QEA Farm to School’s program started with a focus on nutrition education and food skill building. ![]()
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