Philemon Wright High School, Gatineau, Quebec
Grant term 2022-2024
“Lunch or a snack? What would you like today? Yes, it’s fresh from the garden.” Voices excitedly say as they enter the cafeteria at lunchtime at Hadley Junior High and Philemon Wright High School in Gatineau, QC. The NOSH is a cozy little corner of the cafeteria, paper storage room turned classroom kitchen that feeds approximately 100 hungry kids daily, for free.
Susie Leamen is a Red Seal chef and teacher who has a passion for feeding kids nutritious, healthy, delicious food with as few barriers as possible. The MAP (modified academic) and WOTP (work-oriented training pathway) students have been learning to cook for the past two years. They have been making curries, sandwiches, pastas, salads, soups and baked goods, all prepared with as much local produce as possible, sometimes even coming straight from the school garden. The food they learn to make is served to kids from Grades 7-11 at no cost for students in need of a snack or lunch.
In a school of 1400 students, with a wide range of socio-economic needs, our school has seen firsthand how much growing need there is in our community. The Farm to Cafeteria grant has allowed us to reach kids through gardening, cooking, and eating together. Students are learning where food comes from, and how they can build their own gardens and feed themselves. They take time to get a meal and sit and eat together. When they are eating, they put their phones down and are building stronger friendships and deeper connections with their school and community.
Matt McKechnie and Mathieu Germain- Goodman are excellent gardeners, teachers and knowledge keepers that have engaged so many of our students in gardening clubs. We now have the beginning of a hydroponics garden, 6 raised garden beds, a small greenhouse, and two thirty-foot garden beds so far. We are growing towards being able to support our NOSH program with more and more of our own food that students have grown themselves.
The NOSH, a slang word for snacking or munching, also stands for No Students Hungry, is a steadily growing program. Next year we are taking over two Home Economics classes, revamping our curriculum to include food sovereignty, gardening, and home cooking. We are so thrilled the Farm to Cafeteria Grant gave us the opportunity to get our program off the ground and to keep it going.
We are ending the year with a beautiful field trip to Juniper Farms, as a thank you to our students for feeding their community.
