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Posted by: Kim_Hamilton on 04/08/2008 07:23 PM Updated by: Kim_Hamilton on 04/08/2008 07:23 PM
Expires: 01/01/2013 12:00 AM
:



Local Farmers Help Schools Create Community Gardens

In a schools initiative launched by FoCuS (Foothill Collaborative for Sustainability), local farmers, parents and community members are working together with two local schools to set up community gardens. The program which began last year at the Sierra Waldorf School in Jamestown, expands to Michelson Elementary in Murphys this spring. The land has already been plowed and a cover crop grown however volunteers and community members are needed on April 18 at 12:30 p.m. to do some prep-work like putting up....


fences, cutting the cover-crop to go to compost, and tilling the soil so the kids can plant berries, Jerusalem artichokes, and other plants. On April 25, the kids will plant flowers and decorative crops to grow in the garden during their summer vacation.

"The real push here is to get it ready for a real serious winter crop of grains, broccoli, kale, root vegetables like carrots, celery, and potatoes, and other winter greens," said Tim Smith, director of the GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) after-school program.

When completed, the gardens at Michelson Elementary and Sierra Waldorf School will be used as models for other schools to replicate. They will serve as pilot programs demonstrating the stages from the initial parent support, survey of funding available to the actual planting of the garden.

"The children get to actually pick something they've grown and then eat it right there or cook it," said Stephanie Forbes, a mother of three who is one of the original Green School Committee organizers and who has participated in the parent-lead gardening and nutrition program for the past two years. "They see where food comes from, not just from the frozen food aisle, and it gets them out of the classrooms to see everything's so alive."

With this program called the School Garden Initiative, FoCuS hopes to create school gardens which combine educational development with health and nutrition awareness for both students and community members.

Christine Taylor, who helped create the program and co-owns Taylor Mountain Gardens with her husband Eric, further explained, "With hands-on gardening, kids use math and science and fractions while planting, not to mention playing with insects and worms -- it's a level of discovery and sensory experience sometimes lost in traditional school settings."

The goal is for the garden to become an interactive setting encouraging the children to explore social studies, art, and language as well as environmental issues, morality and ethics.

FoCuS plans to further encourage student and community participation by offering seed banks, cooking demonstrations, nutrition seminars and gardening workshops. The children will also learn business by selling starter plants to the community beginning in May and eventually will tie in language by starting a newsletter, learning how to write news releases, and report on their progress to the local newspapers.

The Taylors hope to expand to more schools and acquire funding to hire a Resource Coordinator, School Garden Teachers, and a Roving School Garden Coordinator.

To get involved or volunteer contact Christine Taylor at 728-9112 or email FoCuS@goldrush.com.

In addition to FoCuS, the Taylors also co-founded Outer Aisle Foods, a local-grown food network connecting community members to local organic growers and makers of items such as olive oil, honey, etcetera. For information, go to www.outeraislefoods.com.

The Foothill Collaborative for Sustainability (FoCuS) is a non-profit organization made up of community members with a common mission to educate about sustainable living, the vital link between individuals and their environment (food, water, air, shelter), interdependence between all things, and local community self-reliance. For more information on all of FoCuS's programs go to www.foothillsustainability.org .



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