Planting Lessons, Growing Connections
Updates from the Community Wellness Project Farm to School Program
Generous GRANT received!
CWP was selected to receive a $20,000 grant from Anne & Dick Schneider to be used for School Garden Infrastructure! Each district’s school garden team is contemplating how they will best use this generous gift and will report back so we can prepare an impact report to these wonderful donors!
Quilcene’s gardens are ready for students
Isaiah Treibel is not new to the garden program, but this year, he’s in charge! He’s busy planning for new plants and infrastructure improvements to the garden, as well as creating a garden bed for use by the popular Quilcene culinary class. He teaches Quilcene students from TK through 6th grade weekly.
Chimacum’s garden program stresses collaboration
Valerie Randall welcomed Rachael Dunn to the program and the two of them are quite a team! Rachael has added her expertise to bring high school students into the current PK-6th grade weekly classes. One of the first successes was a field trip to Finnriver Farm with the culinary class in Chimacum’s CTE program. They harvested buckwheat to thresh, grind, and turn into crepes.
Rachael mentions how she loves the way high school tend beds planted by 4th graders; 1st graders plant a pumpkin patch at CES in the spring and return in the fall to harvest it. This builds a sense of place!
Valerie Randall introduced CES 6th graders to caprese salad, one of her favorite lessons. They harvested school-garden grown tomatoes and basil to create simple salads.
Port Townsend High School Garden in full swing
Another new face in our cadre of garden educators this fall, Reilly Berkshire, is leading all 100 freshmen in Friday classes (one of many uses for this wonderful space). Students are winnowing and threshing wheat for a pizza party, harvesting potatoes and carrots, learning about soil health and composting, and picking apples at Blue Heron Orchard for pressing, among other activities.
Learning here blends hands-on work, guest speakers, site visits, journaling & arts, and broader food systems thinking.
Many thanks to The Food Coop for supporting these efforts! We appreciate all you do!