Vision

Students in the Sacred Heart Green Team wanted to promote sustainable cooking and eating practices. They are well aware that meat consumption and agri-business are some of the biggest contributors to global warming and environmental degradation. In order to get the school community eating healthily, locally, and meat-free, they wanted to create a school-wide vegan cooking club that used ingredients grown from our school greenhouse. We started the school greenhouse this year with some basic plants, and so they thought it would be a good idea to expand it and start growing vegetables such as microgreens, tomatoes, onions, ginger, and herbs. They wanted to incorporate these ingredients in their vegan cooking classes to promote locally sourced, sustainable cooking. Eating locally grown vegetables and reducing meat consumption are two important ways we can develop sustainable eating habits.

Action

Our plan is to expand our greenhouse by purchasing new seedbeds, seeds, planters and other equipment to eventually transition into an outside garden next year. We also want to develop more vegan cooking class programs with creative recipes, especially recipes that reflect the diversity of cultures in our school and use products grown in our greenhouse. Next year we will expand the cooking club into a school wide event.

Reflection & Celebration

As of May 2025, we have successfully grown microgreens and ginger in our school greenhouse. The students are excited to develop vegan recipes that spotlight these ingredients. Students have also led a trial run of the vegan cooking club to test the format. In the following school year, our goal is to expand the cooking club to a schoolwide event, using the tie in with vegetables from the expanded greenhouse.