Vision

Our Vision is to put the power of growing into the hands of the next generation. To start a revolution of youth understanding and taking charge of their own healthy food supply. We also want to regenerate soils and increase the nutritional content of food that is grown to support strong and healthy people.

Action

We secured funding with LSF. On Earth Day, we had the whole school plant seedlings of herbs, flowers and vegetables into microbial soil. We then partnered with our local non-profit greenhouse to help us grow the 2000 (hopeful) seedlings. After 5 weeks and about 1300 successful seedlings later, we transplanted and released the seedlings to the school community in little planter pots that were donated by a parent. Students got a tutorial on how to grow, the benefit of the microbes and encouragement. We have a video production team that is also providing support as the items in their garden grow. It is estimated that 300 of the 600 students in our school took plants, as well as teachers and other staff. Some of the extra seedlings will go into our school garden to support the Syrian refugee garden space as a way to raise funds through drying of herbs and a source of food for those in need, including the homeless who visit for sustenance (cucumbers are nature’s Gatorade!).

Reflection & Celebration

We are quite pleased with our success. Overall, the excitement generated and the number of students participating was more than we had anticipated. We liked that each of our 600 students touched the seeds. We love that each student will go home to the family and involve them in the growing and harvesting of their produce. We love that we gave out pollinating flowers for our local pollinators to enjoy and thrive on. We like the education we gave. We love that growing in our yards makes the food we want so much more nutritious and is a climate action as we reduce the transport of produce from other countries/regions. We also love that our poorer community members don’t have to be nutrition poor and can “afford” to have healthy foods.

There is definitely room for improvement:
– We would use very specific starter soil to get the plants to prosper faster.
– We would use deeper starter trays to prevent seedlings from drying out.
– We would prefer to start earlier, but space and climate may limit that, but we would look to find ways to start indoors for tomatoes especially.
– We learned about seedlings that like to be grouped together, like basil and marigolds, and we will try to put more seeds in each cell next time.
– We realize the cost of seed is a lot from the local stores, so we will plan ahead and buy in bulk and utilize our own seed from our garden crops, harvesting and drying and utilizing next year where possible.

We have some students that have taken many plants and are going to celebrate the growth of their gardens as they send in pictures of the garden growing. And we can celebrate and educate on our news channel.

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