From coast to coast, kindergarteners as young as age 5 to grade 12 high school students in both urban and rural areas across Canada came together to celebrate Farm to School Month in October 2015. It was Canada’s second annual Farm to School Month campaign and more than 3300 children and youths took part in diverse Farm to School celebrations, which included harvesting gardens, cooking vegetables that are hand-picked from their school garden, carving pumpkins in the classroom, and taste testing new fruits and vegetables. The excitement and enthusiasm about Farm to School Month were strong and evident across Canada!
“We started a school garden this spring. The whole school participated with planting, weeding, watering and harvesting. We received donations from parents and people in our community. We sold some of our produce at a farmer’s market and used the potatoes to make mashed potato and muffins for our nutrition program – breakfast and lunch provided to kids who need it,” said Jamie Coston with Rimbey Elementary School in Alberta.
In Ontario, Julie Gauthier described how her students at St. Gabriel Catholic School celebrated the Farm to School Month, “The grade 5 and 6 class made minestrone soup using ingredients that we grew in our school gardens. The grade 8 [students] made pumpkin cookies using the pumpkins we grew in the gardens.”
Further on the east coast, Jennifer Berry from Ecole St. Catherine’s School in Nova Scotia had “all students harvest the garden. Grade 4 students shredded zucchini, adult volunteers made zucchini biscuits, grade 5 students made harvest vegetable sauce. All 400 students shared the meal on October 16th.”
As part of the celebration, we asked schools to submit students’ artworks, recipes or poems, and we received over 100 artworks, recipes and poems from blossoming young artists, chefs and poets from as far as Bonavista Newfoundland and Skidegate British Columbia. This year, Farm to Cafeteria Canada partnered with the Whole Kids Foundation to offer a grand prize of a school garden grant valued at $2,000. Kim Herrington from Whole Kids Foundation made the lucky draw and we are happy to announce that the winner is Fairview Community School from Nanaimo, BC!
Jane Kruks, Principal at Fairview Community School, said that a keen parent from their PAC (Parent Advisory Council) found out about the Farm to School Month campaign and added that she gives all the credit to parents for making this happen. The fact that the campaign matched what they were already trying to achieve in their school – which was to have kids spend more time in their school garden and learn more about healthy eating – inspired the teachers and students to engage in the Farm to School Month celebration.
“[Using this grant], we would like to extend the opportunities for kids to work in the garden. We want to be able to purchase supplies so that we can start to use the produce for cooking and we would like to hire someone to do that work with us and to have programs in our school where kids can cook with our own produce.
[This grant] will allow us to provide more time for students to learn about healthy eating, having their own crops and how to care for crops. It will show them not only you can grow them but what you can do with it. It will give them opportunity to taste fruits and vegetables in a new way. It will let the kids get their own hands “dirty” and let them create with their own hands under the supervision of someone who has a passion for it,” said Jane Kruks, Principal at Fairview Community School in Nanaimo, BC, of her plans for the grand prize.
We would also like to congratulate and thank all of the schools across Canada for their time and effort they have put in to engage their students in Farm to School Month celebration. We have set up a PHOTO GALLERY with a sample of artworks, recipes and poems sent by schools.
For further information about Canada’s second annual Farm to School Month Campaign, please contact:
Iris Lee
Communications Lead, Farm to Cafeteria Canada
Email: farm2cafeteriacanada@gmail.com
