At the 2009 SFGP Workshop II ...

Curriculum Resource Drawers

Upcoming Bus Tour Display

At the Resource Table

Foodshare Staff Demenstrating Making Healthy
Vegetable and Fruits Smoothie Attendants Enjoying Healthy Smoothie Cloth Leaf Pounding Activity
The Footprint Garden

Learning about Composting "Green" Footprint Pledge Wall to Show Your SupportThe School Food Gardens on Map

School Food Gardens Workshop II Flipchart Question Discussions

Question #1: What Is Your Summer Maintenance Plan?
(e.g. weekly schedule, watering Wednesdays, weedy weekends …)

Volunteer recruitment
- Promoting through school newsletter and parenting center
- Knocking the doors –making personal connections
- Providing gardening skills training/education sessions to volunteers
- Addressing the needs of volunteers – community volunteers enjoy the gardening experience and networking opportunity

Communication and commitment
- Online calendar to inform school food garden project (SFGP) committee members informed about weekly schedules and duties
- Regular meetings with volunteers
- Garden training/education sessions to volunteers who do not have the gardening knowledge and skills (e.g. identifying the differences between weed and plant)
- Involving care takers

Partnership with Day Care Center
- Shared ownership allows a sustainable partnership
- Involving partners in planning and implementing summer maintenance

Parent volunteers
- Families involved in “Gardening Club”

Community members
- Senior Program
- Summer Camp Program
- Local church

Secondary school students
- Volunteer hours
- Summer job opportunities to youth

Postsecondary school students
- University/college students (e.g. Environmental Science)

Students with special needs (e.g. Surrey Place, Geneva Centre, Toronto Association for Community Living)

Other
- Fall/Winter maintenance
Mulching (TDSB provides free mulching service)

Question #2: How have you recruited/retained parent/community volunteers/participation?

Celebratory Events:
- Weekend “Community Festival” complete with music, face painting, food, planting in the garden
- Heritage dinner/Community dinner with food from harvest
- Rewarding students/staff with “pins” and having a bulletin board display recognizing achievements of those who have worked hard and contributed in the garden

Parent Participation:
- School Food Garden weekly school newsletter insert reminding/asking parents to come help in the garden during a specified time
- Scheduling the “Garden Club” after school so parents who pick up their children can take part with their children
- Inviting parents to the classroom to see what their kids are learning re: school food gardens
- Parent “growing club” during lunch

Community Volunteers:
- Community Center Partnerships
o Grow seeds for the community center garden and in turn, community center cares for school food garden during the summer months
- Nearby Daycare’s and Early Years Centers looking after garden during summer months
- Going door to door and informing community members about the School Food Gardens
- High school students accumulate community hours for looking after garden
- Students writing thank you letters/pictures/harvest/seeds to external funding partners/community volunteers to show their appreciation for their help

Media:
- Contact local newspaper/television to generate awareness of school food gardens
- School newsletter “School Food Garden” inserts
- Creating a booklet/pamphlet “map” of the community and school food gardens to distribute to community members

Question # 3: Has your school linked with the garden with the curriculum? If so, how? (e.g. what resources do you use? …)

Science
- Worm composting = worm empathy (grd 3)
- Living classroom
- Biology – secondary
- Grd 6 biodiversity
- Environmental studies, grd 11
- Ecology grd 7
- Weather
- Medicinal purposes of plants
- Garden journal

Math
- Planting garlic: 1 clove = whole bulb
- Multiplication: plant one seed and see how man you get
- Calculating waste for composting purposes.
- Geometry
- Raised beds = volume and perimeter
- Recipes
- Area perimeter/coordinates
- Measuring sunflower growth, keep the seeds and plant them again.

Art
- Decorate the space – eco art
- Life drawing
- Paper making, flower pressing, book covers
- Van Gogh sunflowers, painting
- photography

Social Studies
- Food/nutrition
- Culture, eating habits in different cultures
- Global warming
- The great exchange – potato
- Pioneer garden/native garden/3 sisters
- Global trading/spice road/explorers – grd 4,6

Language Arts
-
Garden journalsReading comprehension
- Writing
- Oral language
- Recipe writing

Phys Ed
- Physical activity
- Mulching, weeding, shovelling, building containers

Life Skills
- Conflict solving
- Respect
- Working together/stewardship
- Trying food around the world
- Following a recipe

Music
- start every gardening session with singing to plants

Health/Wellness
- Cooking skills i.e. green smoothies
- Stone soup story

ESL
- Many kids grew up in rural settings – are already gardening experts
- Teach horticulture vocab
- Social aspect of working together
- Learning about Canadian flora and trying new produce
- Envn’t education
- Understanding the food chain/source

Geography
- Maps of food origins

Special Needs
- Culinary arts – cooking, shopping, gardening

Other
- Character building
- Gardens are important and link to curriculum is secondary
- Helps teachers who are timid with gardening
- Need for more curriculum resources that are easily accessible and organized by grade and subject.

Question #4: What are your plans with the food that you grow?

- Food goes to the breakfast program, Stone Soup Program, Foods and Nutrition classes use the produce, daycare in the summertime and extra produce to parents of the daycare, students cook with preschoolers.
- Parks & Recreation will freeze produce from garden, lunch program.
- S.T.O.P. Community Centre, food banks.
- Chutney (fundraising).
- Green Smoothies (fundraiser: banana, juice and a green vegetable like spinach or kale-green leafy part only)
- Plant vegetables that will be harvested in the fall like sweet potato.
- Plant sorrel(tangy green perennial that you can harvest now)
- Cook in classrooms- pesto parties, bean dip, mint tea, callaloo.
- Seed saving in the fall-dry them and put them in envelopes
- Zucchini and pumpkin flowers can be put in salads or cooked in tempura batter.
- Snack and Breakfast programs.
- Farmers Markets (could school have a booth) or create their own market at the school.
- Bank of Montreal supports Young Entrepreneur Program.
- Day in School to promote their produce from the garden.
- Send some produce from the garden to local Councillor in your area to raise awareness of your garden and potential future support.
- Staff and students use herbs for team girl’s group made lasagne.
- Grade 4&5 recipe- students grow produce for that recipe.
- SK harvested sunflower seeds in the fall & will grow it in a couple of weeks.
- Resource: Program called Real Food for Real Kids provides fresh organic foods to schools. Remember that there is an interaction with our plants and that we are all connected

Question #5: What is your most pressing garden issue this year?

Composting
- Getting permission from TDSB, getting buy-in from caretakers
- Possible solutions:
o Just do it – don’t ask/wait, when done properly, composting is not an issue
o Develop good relationship with caretaker

Wildlife
- Racoons, slugs
- Possible solutions:
o Physical barriers such as fences/wires
o Planting certain plants as barriers (i.e.) zucchini and cucumber have prickly leaves, may deter pests

Vandalism/fear of vandalism
- Possible solutions include:
o Artwork – especially using names of children/classes to make the garden more personal (i.e.) could use cedar shingles and markers to identify names, weather resistant
o Maintaining the garden, not leaving it too “abandoned” during the summer

Watering during summer months

Need more help with garden basics
- Garden design
- Companion planting
- Getting actual garden in

Money
- Fundraising issues at schools
- Possible solutions:
o Always try to look and ask for money, services, or goods from local businesses (i.e.) local landscape artists, local garden stores
o Could sell produce back to community, teachers, parents (i.e.) herbs
o Look for grants from TFSS (Toronto Foundation for Student Success)

Getting volunteer support
- Volunteers are required for key roles not just some help here and there
- This is especially difficult when the school is not a “neighbourhood school” (i.e.) children are bused in, families live far from actual school – limits their involvement in school activities
- Possible solutions:
o Online calendar to sign up for duties
o Utilizing nearby daycare for summer maintenance
o Organizing volunteers for community hours requirement for students

Having garden utilized by all classes
- Need to ensure that all classes (whole school) is involved in some way in the garden and not just the coordinating teacher’s class

Vegetable Garden Grows

Posted by Rubab Aqil: Over the last 4 weeks, we have been going outside daily to plant the vegetables and flowers that we have grown in class. This refers to the last post "Seedlings". The students have been working very hard to maintain the plants by watering everyday.

All sorts of vegatable and fruits have been growing in the Marc Garneau Gardens

- okra , peas ,basil, beets, tomatoes, squash, oregano, beans, lettuce

Fencing!
A big Thanks to Mr. Smolewski, Rivan and Ugur for building a fence for the school’s vegetable garden. The team of three worked all week consecutively developing a strong fence made from chicken wire. Thanks to them, our vegetable garden looks great. Ms. Jonathan and a couple of students made signs that help protect the gardens from being ruined. So far, the signs have made a huge impact and have allowed walkers to just gaze at the gardens.

Bruschetta

The love for tomatoes and basil has grown. So on Thursday, a couple of students prepared the famous Italian dish "Brushchetta" with the help of fresh basil, tomatoes, oregano, olive oil, garlic and pita bread. It is very important to taste what you have been growing!

Enticing New Gardeners!

Sarah Vogelzang encouraged me to share the "Garden Menu" I offered teachers at Annette and High Park this spring. I hope you find something to get new gardeners excited and empowered. I posted this in the staffroom for a few weeks in April with a sign-up sheet. This year we have 7 classes planting - a 700% increase in garden engagement!

Join us in The Learning Garden!
Grow fruits and vegetables and make connections to science, healthy living, history, social studies, geography, math, art, language arts and great tasting food!

Purple Pea Eaters
People have enjoyed eating peas for over 7,000 years! To celebrate Earth Hour students planted 7 different varieties of peas around the school’s fence. Peas include Sugar Snaps and Purple-podded Capucijners.

Oriental Greens
Kick off spring in April with a zing of oriental greens — bokchoi, tatsoi, giant red mustard, shiso, daikon and snow peas. Add to the flavour punch with ginger, turmeric and lemongrass. Plant greens April and/or September. Transplant sprouted roots late May.

Global Trade Routes
How did okra find its way from Ethiopia to Iran, Greece, India, Brazil, Louisiana and even Vietnam? Who brought chili peppers from Mexico to the Philippines, where they spread like wildfire to India, China, Korea and Japan? Exploring global trade routes and cultural pathways, this garden includes: okra, chili peppers, cumin, cilantro, callaloo, tomatillos, and tomatoes. Plant mid-May.


First Nations Garden
Alongside the 3 Sisters (corn, beans and squash), plant sunflowers, Jerusalem artichokes, ground cherries and pumpkins. Discover the rich cultural history of these crops grown for over 6,000 years in central and South America. Plant mid-May.

Pizza Slice
Plant zucchini, tomatoes, eggplant and peppers alongside other tasty pizza flavours: basil, oregano and marjoram. Investigate the history of pizza, a surprisingly multicultural dish. Plant mid-May.

Settler Garden
Early Canadian settlers brought carrots, peas and beets with them from Europe, along with onions, parsnips, potatoes and peas. Grow staple foods that store well to see a family through a long hard winter. Great ingredients for making Stone Soup! Includes dill, sage, thyme. Plant April through May and/or September.

Ancient Grains
Before Wonder Bread…Neolithic humans discovered that the grains of wild grasses could be ground into a tasty meal. Explore the fascinating history of ancient grains: plant Stone Age black einkorn and Bronze Age spelt alongside Temuco Quinoa (Aztec), Bronze Millet (China), Zanduri Wheat (Georgia) and Purple Barley (Ethiopia). Plant April and/or September.

Bean Keepers
Grow tasty beans and learn about the importance of seed diversity. This year we are growing 14 varieties of beans! Ireland Creek, Baie Verte Indian, Orca, Thibodeau de Comte Beauce, Red Cranberry, Mennonite Purple Stripe, Chinese Yardlong (grows to 75cm!), Trionfo Violetto, Scarlet Runner, Arikara Yellow, Kentucky Wonder Pole Bean, Black-seeded Italian, Purple Peacock, and Hutterite Soup bean. Plant May.

herbs in action

vegetable boxes

student's thoughts

First of all I put soil in the tray then I put mixed flower seeds. Then I watered them. After three days, fake leaves came out. I changed the seedlings in to a bigger pot. After that I get the foliage leaves and the leaves are healthy. They are growing bigger.

By: Aisha

SEEDS!

For the past few weeks, our horticulture class has been planting seeds for our school garden. Every student has gotten the opportunity to pick out 2 different types of seeds (flowers and vegetables). They have been growing these seeds in trays and pots. Everyday, the students come in and water their seeds.
Last week, when the weather cleared up, we went out and started cleaning the gardens. The students were put in teams and were designated to clean up a certain area. One of the teachers helped build boxes for our vegetables to be grown in. On Friday, we went out and put the boxes in different areas of the school where we want the vegetables to be grown.
It has been very tiring yet an exciting moment for each student in the horticulture class. We look forward to planting the seedlings in those gardens.
Over the next few weeks, the students will be publishing their own thoughts towards this goal. We will also be uploading pictures to show the progress of our flowers and vegetables.
By: Zainab and Rubab

seedlings

We are happy to say that we have a shelf at the greenhouse at Trinity Bellwoods Park.
We have done seedlings with two Grade 4 classes and two Grade 5 classes.

Online calendar

At the Foodhshare workshop people asked me about the online calendar we use to help schedule garden events and watering over the summer. Here's the link to our school's calendar.

Important Notice - 2nd School Food Garden Project (SFGP) Training!

Dear SFGP participants,

Please note that the 2nd SFGP training workshop date has been changed from Wed. April 29 to Friday May 8, 2009. You will be informed about the training details prior to the workshop.

Thank You!

SFGP Workgroup

Early Spring Gardening Workshops

Seedy Saturday
When: Saturday Feb 28th, 2 pm - 6 pm
Location: Artscape Whychwood Barns, 601 Christie at St. Claire.
Entry: ~$2, and workshops are free.
What: One of the biggest events of the year for organic gardeners. Seed exchange, Heirloom seeds for sale, gardening workshops, and kids activities.

For more information visit: http://www.tcgn.ca/wiki/wiki.php?n=CommunityEvents.SeedySaturday2009