Local and Sustainable Food
Vision
Our students learned about local food, farming, sustainable growing practices, sustainable cooking, and sustainable energy. Students at Tagwi are very connected to the farming community and were interested in knowing more about how food is produced. They also had questions about the future of cooking and alternative fuel sources. Students also wanted to learn how to cook some recipes using local ingredients from our area.
Action
Our students took field trips to a local farm and a cheese factory to learn about local food practices. Students made solar ovens and tested out ways to cook sustainably. They also created a menu of local Ontario food to sell to their school. Students cooked all the food and sold it at lunch to raise money for a local food bank. Our students chose the charity “Community Food Share” to donate all of the money and cans they have collected. Finally, students planted spinach seeds in a grow tower to donate fresh spinach to the food bank.
There are a few issues in this project that were very important to our community. Some students shared that they had used the food bank in the past and really wanted to donate. Other students wanted to help showcase local Ontario ingredients to support the farmers in the community. Finally, alternative fuel sources are important for the community as it can help to mitigate the climate change issues being seen. Sharing this information with the whole school is important so that issues of sustainability and climate change can have a bigger focus in our community.
Reflection & Celebration
Our students really connected to the project content and had a lot of fun participating. Whether is was cooking, planning, growing, or helping local organizations, students got involved and had fun. This project allowed us to connect things we are learning in class to real-world action which made things more real. Students also enjoyed learning how our actions connected to SDGs. In the end, out class raised $341 for the local food bank, collected a huge box of food, created awareness about meatless meals, created awareness about alternative sources of cooking methods, and ways to plant and harvest locally. Our class connected with local farms and manufacturers to find out how food is made and how we can make better choices to help the planet and local businesses.