In the 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 school year, a series of schools who received Farm to School BC Start-Up Grants were asked to write a short story describing their process to date in building their Farm to School programs. The stories below are a reflection of the creativity, ingenuity and hard work of schools across the province in building Farm to School programs that work for their school and their community. No one size fits all, enjoy!
At South Nelson Elementary School, we feel that we have genuinely incorporated the Farm to School vision with the successful implementation of our weekly salad bar lunch program which features fresh and local vegetables. We have two local farmers who deliver produce directly to our school. A baker from our neighborhood who bakes fresh bread, […]
Rockheights Middle School, located in the Township of Esquimalt is a school with 214 students, 54% of whom are considered at risk in the vulnerability index. For the specific garden project, 30 students are directly involved. These students are primarily in grade six but we also have a contingent of grade seven and eight students […]
Cultivating healthy eating and ecological stewardship may require much more than good snacks- but they are certainly a decent starting point. With our Farm to School BC grant, we are transforming a part of the school food landscape by empowering students to produce, market and sell preserved fruits and vegetables. During the initial months of implementation, we have […]
Growing Together: Ucluelet Elementary School Garden There is only one way to describe our first year in the garden, ‘Growing Like a Weed!’ Through a collaborative approach our school garden grew tremendously. Starting with a 320 square foot greenhouse, in less than a year it grew to a 7200 foot garden enclosure. Our school garden […]
Christina Lake Elementary School embarked on introducing Tower Gardens to the school community in the spring of 2015. Our idea was to grow vegetables using Tower Garden Growing Systems, and use the vegetables to create a free salad bar program for all students. The Tower Garden Growing System uses aeroponic technology to simultaneously grow up to 28 […]
Our Farm to School program has been extremely successful. Students have been truly empowered by learning about soil, composting, preparing garden beds, planting seeds, watering, caring for plants and harvesting food. We offered a Harvest Lunch twice this year. Students, as well as staff and many parents prepared food sourced from our partner farm, North End […]
We set out on our Farm to School journey with two goals. The first was to create a school garden and the second was to continue to support our school’s morning snack program. The process has been both rewarding and challenging at the same time. The idea of a school garden had been swirling around […]
Sardis Secondary School Farm – Growing Community The Sardis Secondary School Farm (SSSFarm) is a 5-acre extension of our School’s Agriculture Program at Sardis Secondary School, Chilliwack, BC. During the 2014-2015 school year 100 students were involved in our new program. In the fall, students planted 2000 bulbs on the farm for our beautiful […]
Diane Smith – Principal, Parkland Elementary and Christine Piltz, Community Lead Accomplishments: The installation of an incubator/starter school-community garden was a great success. Both students and community were able to experience hands on learning with seed starting indoors, transplanting to the garden and harvesting throughout the summer and into the Fall of 2015. In particular, lots […]
Our Big dream QEA Farm to School’s program started with a focus on nutrition education and food skill building. Our idea was to develop and enhance the students’ understanding of food and healthy eating through creative, hands on learning. We have used the expertise of community partners and parent volunteers to educate the students on gardening, […]