Vision

Why this project? From the David Suzuki Foundation: “The average meal travels 1,200 kilometers from the farm to plate. Food grown locally produces fewer transportation emissions, is fresher and supports local farmers. As the distance food travels decreases, so does the need for processing and refrigeration to reduce spoilage.” This project reduces carbon emission from transportation and spoilage and encourages students to grow their own gardens and eat locally in their daily lives.
The project will also promote vegetarian recipes (like vegetable lasagna, salads, and vegetable soups). Meat consumption is a leading source of greenhouse gases and promoting the cooking and consumption of vegetarian food can help combat climate change. This project also addresses issues related to nutrition and food insecurity in our community.
The students were inspired to tackle this issue when they attended the open house at the Barrett Centre farm and talked to the students and professors there. They got a chance to harvest vegetables and even eat them right off the ground. This inspired the idea of cooking at school with the vegetables and sharing the meals with other students.

Action

The aim of the project was to lead cooking sessions during which students cook meals using freshly harvested vegetables from our community garden, our greenhouse, and the nearby Barrett Centre community farm.
The project involved the planting and care of our school’s community garden, harvesting vegetables grown in our school garden, visits to the nearby Barrett Centre community farm for harvesting of other vegetables, and then cooking a delicious meal comprised mostly of the locally farmed and student harvested vegetables.
The students harvested vegetables and cooked the following this school year: pumpkin soup, harvest Salad (using only locally grown vegetables and herbs), and pickled beets and turnips.
The students have since then planted more vegetables such as tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant, peppers, garlic, and more pumpkins, beets, turnips, and kale. These are currently sprouting in small pots in our school greenhouse and will be planted at the end of May outside in our school garden. The tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant, garlic, and peppers will be harvested next fall and will be used to make vegetable lasagna and zucchini bread to be shared with the school community.