2017 Farm to School Month Canada Photo Gallery

Drummond/North Elmsley, Ontario

By hands on harvesting the vegetables that they have planted, watered and watched grow, the students  have a investment to try eating foods that they may not have tried before.  Learning to chop, peel and prepare vegetables gives the students like long skills to cook their own healthy food.  Preparing a meal for the whole school to enjoy sets by example the sense of accomplishment and fulfillment that the act of eating together in celebration can give.

Photo Credit: Donna Klassen

Ottawa, Ontario

At Elizabeth Wyn Wood Alternate Program in Ottawa, we just planted a school garden in the late spring. Over the summer it grew and since coming back to school, a number of interested students have started a garden club to “dig in” and care for our garden. Our keen student gardeners have been caring for the plants they planted in the spring and just did a big harvest of cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes.

Since our school serves primarily at-risk youth in the west side of Ottawa, the garden club students decided to go around the school and distribute the harvested produce to students in need. They have also used the veggies as part of our Tuesday and Thursday “MEGS” (Make, Eat, Grow, Share) program that feeds our students from food that has been donated, grown or purchased to help provide warm, healthy meals during the week.

With the end of the harvest season upon us, our garden club team is planning out next year’s garden plantings and have just planted some onion and garlic bulbs for a spring harvest.

We are working hard to try and source ways of growing more food at school and the students are working on ways of building an in-class aquaponics system to have lettuces and herbs growing in our class year-round. The grant would really help us on our way to finish building this project and also support us in getting the garden planted and up and running in the spring of 2018.

Photo Credit:  Emily MacDuff

Salisbury, New Brunswick

Teachers at SES are embracing outdoor learning and encouraging their students to explore their environment through the gardens. Making connections between a healthy environment, healthy foods and healthy bodies is made fun and concrete for our students.

Curriculum outcomes are easily incorporated in the garden this fall with messy math, measuring sunflowers, sorting turnips from smallest to biggest, making Scissor Salsa from garden produce, making apple crisp from a local farmers orchard and reading related picture books such as the Enormous Turnip, Tops and Bottoms and Eating the Alphabet!

Our students senses are engaged with our sensory garden and tasting the varieties of berries and veggies in the garden. Our Farm to Cafeteria salad bar is supplied with fresh carrots and tomatoes from our gardens. Tomatoes from the garden have been blanched and frozen for our students to make spaghetti sauce later in the year to share with the local Food Bank. Even in the middle of winter our garden continues to teach as we use our preserved vegetables and begin another season of starting our seeds indoors in February with light gardens. As the lead for the school garden I am excited to see the enthusiasm our teachers and students bring to learning in the gardens.

Photo Credit:  Amber Lewis, Kindergarten teacher

L’Étang-du-Nord, Québec

Le Campus des Îles possède un grand potager pédagogique coordonné par des membres du personnel et cultivé par les étudiants  depuis 2015. Ce projet permet d’initier les jeunes de la région au jardinage écologique,  de tisser des liens avec des agriculteurs locaux, d’augmenter la proportion de légumes locaux et écologiques dans les menus de la cafétéria du campus, de réduire l’emballage et les gaz à effet de serre associés à la consommation d’aliments au campus, etc. Le 1er octobre dernier a eu lieu le souper des récoltes, un souper-bénéfice cuisiné exclusivement à partir des légumes du potager et de produits locaux par les élèves jardiniers. Près de 150 personnes ont participé à ce souper rassembleur qui fut un grand succès de la terre à la table!

Crédit photo: Josiane Bergeron

Richmond, British Columbia

Our outdoor classroom and school garden provide meaningful opportunities for hands-on, cross-curricular learning! My goal is to normalize nature play and deepen the children’s attachments to the garden by providing engaging invitations for playful inquiry in our school garden. Through play and exploration, hard work and curiosity, the students authentically engage in broadening their understandings of food security, farming techniques, and the importance of biodiversity for the health of our garden.

Photo Credit: Megan Zeni

Brossard, Québec

Le projet a duré plusieurs mois , soit de la germination des pousses, de la transplantation des pousses dans le potager, jusqu’à la récolte des aliments cet automne. Les enfants ont été impliqués tout au long du projet. Par la suite les enfants on pu goûter le fruit de leur récolte qui fût apprêté et introduits aux recettes de la cuisine.

Les enfants ont donc pu voir et constater ce qui se passe lorsque l’on jardine et que l’on prend soin de bien arroser et désherber le tout. ils ont pu comprendre que c’est un long processus, pour eux, mais que c’est l’origine des aliments qu’ils ont dans leur assiette au quotidien. Ils ont su développer leur patience, et certaines connaissances en jardinage.

Crédit photo: La récolte des radis

Canoe, British Columbia

The students are very knowledgeable and engaged in the food-compost-growing cycle. The students are excited to see the red wiggler worms composting, taking the classroom compost buckets to the composter and eventually adding the composted soil to the school garden.  In the spring, we will be planting pumpkin seeds to harvest in fall 2018.

Photo credit: Nadine Quilty

Châteauguay, Québec

The students at Harmony are involved in all aspects of the garden. They help build the boxes, plant the seedlings, water and weed the garden and harvest the vegetables. Our school garden also offers a place for students to go and relax during recess, in a beautiful calm environment.

Photo credit: Châteauguay

Montréal, Québec

The members of our green team are super enthusiastic about this project.  They are learning  how to re plant and transform leaves into soil.  They are prune I guess and replanting , all of this is being done in a group setting.

Photo credit: Carmy Colafabio

Cambridge, Nova Scotia

Students, parents, and school community supported a fundraiser in support of Nourish Your Roots. Also, every class visited Dempsey’s Corner Orchard where they picked apples, pumpkins and corn.

Photo credit: Cambridge

Wolfe Island, Ontario

A Seed Saving Workshop was held on Thursday morning at the Wolfe Island Community Garden. Students and teachers from senior classes at Marysville Public and Sacred Heart Catholic schools were invited to this learning event which was led by Kathy Rothermel (Windkeeper Farms and the Kingston and Area Seed System Initiative – KASSI); Cathy Christie (Science Education Teacher, Faculty of Education at Queen’s University, and chair of the Community Garden Committee of KASSI); and Janette Haas (School to Garden Program Coordinator of the Wolfe Island Community Garden – WICG). WICG volunteers were on hand to assist. The workshop provided an interactive, hands-on learning experience that explored concepts in biology, ecology, math and social sciences. Students shared their knowledge of family farms, food and plants and they saved seeds which they can plant in the spring. What a great bunch of young people we have on the Island.

Photo credit: Cambridge

Lewisporte, Newfoundland and Labrador

The children were able to plant seeds and see them grow. In the Fall they were then able to harvest their vegetables they grew and were able to eat them for Thanksgiving lunch. They learned about how seeds and vegetables grow and they were able taste the vegetables that they grew. Many of the children (preschoolers aged 3-4!) were able to identify many of the vegetables as well from just their stalks (such as carrots and potatoes!).

Photo credit: New Fun Land Staff

Smithers, British Columbia

Students were able to sow kale seeds in the spring, help with maintaining the garden and then harvest the kale to make spanakopita in the Fall. In addition to the satisfaction of growing one’s own food, it has shown them the connection and full circle effect of processing what they grew. This has also demonstrated a perfect example of increasing local food security by minimizing food waste as the over-abundant kale would have been left for the deers (!) and instead was harvested to make a yummy phyllo pastry!

Photo credit: Helene Fleury

Cambridge-Narrows, New Brunswick

This year we really tried to connect students through all 4 aspects of Digging In. First we took our Grade 11/12 Nutrition class to our local organic farmer partner. Here he discussed the importance of crop rotation, soil nutrients, and how he grows unique veggies that appeals to his customer base at the farmers market. He had us sample his wide variety of melons, cherry tomatoes, carrots and we got to have a look at his wide array of produce. From there we now have this same nutrition class that helps us prepare our weekly salad bar. Every Monday morning the class comes in and we do a lot of kitchen work including washing, cleaning and chopping. Every Monday at noon we offer our salad bar throughout our K-12 school to all staff and students. We are a fairly small school with about 170 students, but we have about 60+ students that have the salad bar every week. We also have a Health committee which consists of student volunteers who come in to help with serving the salad bar to our fellow staff and students. This year we were also fortunate to have a small harvest from the garden that our K – 2 class planted last spring. We took these same students out to the garden for harvest day. They dug potatoes, beets, picked peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers and squash. We also picked some cantaloupe and watermelon which we sampled after we finished all of our hard work. This was definitely a highlight for our students. We are very proud that by participating in this program we were able to Garden, Farm, work in the Kitchen, eat in the Cafeteria, and show our students how we DIG IN!!

Photo credit: Marcy Malloy

Saint-Denis-sur-Richelieu, Québec

Cette année au cpe nous avons construit des potager. Nous avons parti des semis avec les enfants pour ensuite les mettre en terre et les observer pousser . Grâce à l’implication de la communauté nous avons établi une horaire pour que des bénévoles arrosé le potager les fins de semaine. Nous avons déguster des fleurs et des fines herbes, cuisiner des salades et une belle soupe repas. Chaque éducatrice à réalisé une activité de groupe inspirer de la formation croquarium. Pour finaliser le tout une fête des récoltes fut réaliser dans le parc de notre village avec des cultivateur locaux qui pouvait vendre leur récoltes et produit du terroir.

Crédit Photo : Cpe les petits dyno Denis

Dunham, Québec

Les cuisines collectives à l’école de la Clé-Des-Champs s’inscrivent dans les activités de la Récolte des Générations, un organisme ayant pour mission de créer des jardins collectifs intergénérationnels dans la MRC de Brome-Missisquoi. Lesparticipant.es aux cuisines ont donc préalablement entretenu un jardin et récolté ses fruits et ce, dès le mois de mai. Ainsi, les enfants sont appelés à créer des liens avec les membres de leur communauté élargie au jardin, tout comme dans la cuisine. Les activités organisées dans le cadre du Mois De la ferme à l’école ont permis aux élèves de se familiariser avec la conservation d’aliments récoltés à même la ferme voisine. Ils acquièrent, à travers ce projet, une conscience de la sécurité en cuisine, de l’autonomie et un sens du partage des responsabilités en plus d’apprendre les manipulations que demande la conservation de légumes et de fruits frais.

Crédit Photo : facebook de la Récolte des Générations

Vancouver, British Columbia

Our Farm to School program is much more than just growing vegetables. It provides an opportunity to bring educational concepts into a world that our students can touch, smell, taste, and see. The kids, of course, love the chance to “dig in” and get their hands dirty outside in the fresh air!

Photo Credit: Myriam Nolet

Montreal, Québec

Students from Pre-Kindergarten to Grade 6 have been growing their own food in the school garden and transforming it into delicious eats. We have been growing, eating, composting, learning, sharing with our community and demonstrating that sustainability can be a whole lot of fun!

Photo Credit: Eric Rowles

Winnipeg, Manitoba

We provide a nutritious breakfast twice a week to students at our school of 2, 000. We offer grab and go items for students to build community, lead a healthy lifestyle and support each other.

Photo Credit: Sisler Breakfast Club

Huntingdon, Québec

Our students visited a local farm this October as part of a study done on pumpkins. Before our visit, we learned about pumpkins, their parts and life cycles. We then visited a local farm, Verge du Pirate, where we were given lessons on types of pumpkins, how they were grown, etc. We then picked our own pumpkins. We then decorated pumpkins from another local vendor in class. We did a writing activity based on our pumpkin. To finish off our pumpkin study, we carved pumpkins (while exploring their parts) and roasted the seeds to eat using healthy ingredients.

Photo Credit: Kaylie Bernert

Moncton, New Brunswick

Beaverbrook k-8 school is a small school with a big sense of community and heart. This year, the garden was very abundant. Many students from different grade levels were engaged in learning about where the food they eat comes from through planting, tending to, and harvesting the vegetables. Students enjoyed eating kale chips and salads, and next week, we will be planting garlic! Those green sprouts pushing through the earth are bound to renew our spirits as the dark days of winter ahead finally fade into spring.

Photo Credit: Darlene Hanson

Mirabel, Québec

Tous les jeudi, le département d’horticulture faisait une vente de légume à l’école où les élèves de tous les programmes et les enseignants pouvaient acheter a bas prix les aliments produits sur place. Cette action permet de conscientiser les élèves sur la provenance et la qualité de leur légumes et voir le résultat de leur travail et de leur apprentissage. Les élèves récoltent les produits plantés par les étudiants des années précédentes, et sèment pour ceux qui suivront. Ce projet donne la chance aux élèves d’avoir accès à des fruits et légumes frais, ce qui a un impact bénéfique sur leur alimentation , mais également forme un lien social entre les programmes qui se rencontrent tout les jeudi midi autour du marché. Les profits de la vente permettent de venir en aide à des étudiants en difficulté ou sont utilisés pour améliorer la vie étudiante. Les surplus sont utilisés par la cafétéria, ou ils sont envoyés a des organismes de bienfaisance de la région.

Crédit Photo : Cellulaire de Chloé Blanchet

Bonavista, Newfoundland and Labrador

‘Little Gardeners’ allowed children and their parents to experience first hand how the tiny seeds sown, watered and cared for developed into nourishing food that they harvested, cooked and ate all by themselves!! Watching the children dig potatoes was like watching them dig for treasure!

Photo Credit : Candy Holloway

Port Clements, British Columbia

Port Clements Elementary School students on enjoyed a sunny October afternoon picking cranberries in a beautiful bog on Haida Gwaii. As a part of their fall food gathering trip, they enjoyed eating the tart berries, searching for other bog plants that grow in the wetland habitat and Haida names of some food plants they encountered. They learned how to be mindful of their footsteps in this fragile landscape, harvest respectfully and give thanks. They pooled their berries together and will be making a cranberry/pear crumble to share with the whole school.

Photo Credit : Kiku Dhanwant

Geary, New Brunswick

It was all hands on deck for the 1st annual ‘Digging In’ of our Ghouls & Garlic planting. Students from K-5 got to dig in our recently summer harvested beds and prepare them for our first planting of Garlic. Students learned the correct way to plant garlic, and even how to dust them with wood ash , to protect them from harmful bacteria or viruses. They are so excited to finally have a crop that will grow in-sync with their school year where they will be able to follow it from seed (actually clove) to table! This first planting will be harvested in September when our students return from summer break. Garlic grown will be dried and then used to ‘Fundraise’ for Culinary Exploration within our whole school, of course, we’ll have to sample some of their hard work on housemate pizzas or pesto, or even spaghetti sauce!

Photo Credit : Roberta Akcakiryan

Navan, Ontario

During the 16/17 school year, Heritage Public School’s parent council here in Navan came across a program called Growing Up Organic, which is a garden and farm-based educational program for children and youth. Parent council thought it was a great fit given the rural roots of the school, and researched the program with the intention of building raised vegetable/flower garden beds on school property for the teachers and students to use throughout the school year. The daycare on site, Children’s Village, offered to maintain the gardens over the summer months alongside their own planted gardens.

Growing Up Organic hopes to “foster a generation of children and youth with greater food literacy, life-long healthy eating habits, increased food skills, and an understanding of environmental health issues”. Garden-based workshops that are linked to the Ontario curriculum can be delivered on site at the school gardens in the spring and fall and include: seed saving, soil exploration, planning the garden, planting a garden, seed starting, and transplanting. There are links to the curriculum for grades 1-8 including Science and Technology, Health and Physical Education, Mathematics, Social Studies, and Geography. The gardens are popping up at many schools in the Ottawa area and are being conceptualized as an “Outdoor Classroom”.

After some research, and development of a proposal, the idea was well received by the principal and many staff at Heritage PS as well as the school board. With that, approximately 10 parent and grandparent volunteers set to work to build 8 4x6x2 raised garden beds on a sunny Saturday in July. 6 hours of hard work and the result is this beautiful garden area, accessible to all students and close to a water source for easy care and maintenance. The wood for this project ($2100 worth) was generously donated by Swank Construction Ltd, and the soil ($600 worth) generously donated and delivered by Laurent Leblanc Ltd.

Parent council hopes that in having these gardens, the kids can see where food comes from and can appreciate the work behind growing food. School gardens also foster a sense of community, of belonging, of working towards a common goal, of inclusion, and parent council hopes the gardens will strengthen relationships between the students, teachers, daycare staff, parents and community volunteers. The gardens may also encourage leadership opportunities, for example via the creation of a gardening club for some of the senior students at the school.

In terms of what to do with the produce grown? Nothing better than fresh veggies to eat at the school and daycare during nutritional breaks! The produce could also be donated to local food banks, which is a great way to give back to the community. The first crop will be planted in Spring 2018 and parent council is excited to see the kids forming and maintaining relationships, growing their own food from seed, and giving back to their community.

The kids are excited to dig in in Spring 2018 and plant some veggies. For now, the JK/SK classes for out a couple weeks ago to plant some spring bulbs and they are anxious to see them bloom come Spring.

We decorated our garden with a wooden sign donated by a local vendor that said “Plant Smiles, Grow Laughter, Harvest Love” ♥️

Photo Credit : Navan Nugget Editor Tom

North Bay, Ontario

Students in the Hospitality and Tourism program had the opportunity to harvest fresh produce and herbs from the school garden court yard. Such items include cucumber, tomatoes, potatoes, basil, chives, oregano and mint.  The students returned to the kitchen after harvesting to clean and prep produce and herbs for creating a tomato cucumber salad  salad and a cream of potato soup.

Photo Credit: SJSH student

Delisle, Saskatchewan

We take our school garden produce and harvest it for a breakfast program for the students. Breakfast is served every day of the week. We incorporate all of the produce into the canning, baking and breakfasts we make at school for the kids. We also use to produce for our hot meal lunch we serve once a month.

Photo Credit: Connie Schnitzler

Moncton, New Brunswick

We plant organic vegetable gardens and the kids help to plant seeds, transplant seedlings, water, and harvest.  Last week we dug up a lot of potatoes, carrots, and beets; also picked peppers, tomatoes, beans, zucchini, squash, and cucumbers.  The kids then played ‘Farmrers Market Booth’ and sold the veggies with ‘free samples’.  We give away a lot of our organic harvest to the daycare families.  We serve the food we grow all summer and fall.  We teach the importance of growing our own, supporting local, and choosing organic.  We visit organic farms each summer and teach the difference between local and ethical small scale farming v.s factory farming.  I could go on and on!

Photo Credit: Chrystal Leal

St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Québec

Désireux de rentabiliser ses espaces verts, une éducatrice a soumis l’idée d’embaucher une ressource, Geneviève, pour venir nous aider à faire un jardin bio. La personne est venue nous rencontrer et établir un “plan de match”. C’est dans des smart pots que nous avons planté : 2 sortes de bette à carde, des carottes, des concombres, des fines herbes, des fèves, etc…Quelle réussite. Les enfants passaient et mangeaient à leur guise une feuille de basilic, de la ciboulette, une petite carotte, etc…Et l’odeur dans la cour….Les parents étaient très heureux de ce projet car ce sont leurs enfants qui ont planté les beaux légumes. Ce petit projet pourrait prendre de l’ampleur car nous avons un beau grand terrain inoccupé que nous aimerions convertir en jardin communautaire avec la municipalité. Il est important pour nous de créer des liens avec la communauté. 

Nous avons découvert la bette à carde qui était tout nouveau pour la majorité d’entre nous. nous en avons fait des bouquets que nous avons laissés dans l’entrée du CPE en indiquant : à donner. Pour finaliser le projet, nous vendons, en levée de fonds,  des paniers bios en collaboration avec une ferme locale. une belle façon d’inciter les employées et les parents à manger bio.

Photo Credit: CPE Les Poussineaux

Memramcook, New Brunswick

L’an passé (en fin juin 2017), les élèves de l’École Abbey-Landry ont eu l’occasion de travailler la terre et de préparer le jardin qui est situé sur le terrain de l’école. Les élèves y ont plantés carottes dans le but de les récolter au début de la nouvelle année scolaire. Les carottes récoltés jusqu’à date ont été vendus au Réseau des cafétérias communautaires Inc. (responsable de la cafétéria à l’école Abbey-Landry) et ont été distribués à l’école Abbey-Landry. Les élèves adorent venir au jardin pendant leur heure de dîner et quelques-uns nous disent que c’est la première fois qu’ils récoltent des carottes. Ils adorent dévorer les carottes qu’ils ont récoltées et veulent toujours rester plus longtemps au jardin. Ces activités permettent aux jeunes d’acquérir des compétences et connaissance en jardinage grâce à ces activités expérientielles. Ils se rendent compte qu’ils peuvent se nourrir de leur propres efforts.

Crédit photo: Véronic Cormier

Longueuil, Québec

Bonjour,

Cet été chaque groupe de notre centre de la petite enfance ont eu la chance d’avoir avec  un bac de bois pour faire un jardin. Les enfants ont pu participer en semant les graines et en prenant soin de leur jardin tous les jours. Ils ont pu manger des légumes pendant qu’ils jouaient à l’extérieur. Ils ont fait une belle récolte à la fin de l’été. La cuisinière a pu cuisiner avec les fines herbes et les légumes.

Crédit photo: CPE La Petite Semence

Riviere, Nova Scotia

Bonjour,

Our students are “digging in” the garden this month to harvest everything we planted back in the spring. Students have harvested plenty of veggies and are using the produce to make coleslaw, salsa, stone soup, mashed potatoes, parley potatoes. Some of the food is being used in our school breakfast and lunch programs. Students get to see how planting a seed and tending to it over the summer benefits us with local healthy food in the fall harvest. “From garden to kitchen to table to tummy!”

Photo Credit: Kristy Boutilier

Montréal, Québec

Nous avons organisé une levée de fonds par la vente de paniers biologiques en provenance d’un fermier local et chapeauté par Équiterre. 128 paniers ont été vendus. Les enfants et les familles sont ainsi sensibilisés à la consommation de produits locaux. La distribution des paniers sera une occasion festive pour rassembler les familles et pour déguster les produits de François, notre fermier des Jardins du petit Tremble.

De plus, cette activité s’inscrit en continuité avec notre visite à la ferme chaque année avec les enfants de maternelle. Faisant partie du projet À la Soupe! d’Équiterre depuis ses débuts, les enfants ont la chance, chaque automne, de déguster les produits biologiques de la Ferme de La Berceuse en collation au service de garde.

Crédit photo: Service de garde Sainte-Bibiane

Brackendale, British Columbia

Students involved in these fun and educational programs are impacted in a number of different ways, including:

– feeling a greater connection to the earth and our important role within it;
– understanding the food cycle process;
– developing and/or enhancing food literacy skills;
– applying gardening and growing skills;
– learning how to transform what we grow into fabulous food;
– establishing a sense of community where each person’s contributions are part of the success of the collective.

These experiences provide for a wonderful way for students to inspire others and begin a process that they can build upon throughout their lives.

Photo Credit: Cheakamus Centre

Squamish, British Columbia

Au retour des vacances d’été, les élèves étaient vraiment impressionnés de voir la croissance des courges et des betteraves. Ils ont créé trois recettes; les gnocchis à la citrouille, une salade de feuilles de betteraves et de betteraves et un gâteau à la citrouille. Nous avons ensuite cuisiné et dégusté le tout en classe à l’aide d’un chef et papa de classe. Ça goutait comme au restaurant, c’était tellement bon.

Cette semaine, ils vont sculpter les citrouilles restantes et cuisiner un potage de citrouille. Miam!

Je crois qu’ils apprennent à être créatifs et émerveillés par la croissance des aliments.

Crédit photo: Catherine LAir

Saint-Denis-sur-Richelieu, Québec

Nous avons fait nos semis biologique en hiver au service de garde, par la suite la fabrication de 3 bacs pour faire un jardin avec l’aide de parent bénévoles et les élèves.

Crédit photo: Josée Monette

Grand-Barachois, Nouveau-Brunswick

Les élèves ont plantés des graines à la fin de l’année scolaire 2016-2017. Cet automne, ils ont procédé à la récolte de légumes frais qui ont été utilisés pour les repas à la cafétéria de l’école. Toutes les classes de tous les niveaux ont choisi le légume de leur choix pour en planter les graines.

Crédit photo: Tania Lagacé

Coldstream, British Columbia

The timeline of our now famous potato fries began last fall. While students were cleaning up the garden some beautiful purple potatoes were found. This first group to enjoy those potato fries were soon the envie and so every class had their turn to prepare and serve fries to their classmates. Come spring it was a given that we would plant potatos. So with great anticipation students dug up potatoes this fall and so the fries began. Some great conversations come out of the kitchen experinece. One kindergardener was asked by his mom… ” so I heard you made fries at school… no mom they’re potatoes”. Another student anounced he was going to be a chef when he grew up. I told him he could be a chef now. I’m guessing he was greatly encouraged by his success in the kitchen. To say that the lowly potato has influenced the students is an understatement. For certain there is the connection between the garden potato harvest and the fries that they serve their classmates. They are amazed at how simple and easy too… just potatoes after all… little olive oil and salt.

Photo Credit: Dawn Guenette

Cap-Pelé, New Brunswick

Chaque printemps, grâce à un partenariat avec un agriculteur et les employés du village, les élèves de la troisième année sèment des graines afin de faire planter des légumes. Quand arrive l’automne, c’est le temps de la récolte, alors ils retournent à leur jardin afin de ramasser les légumes. Ces légumes sont ensuite donnés au comité Entraide de la paroisse afin d’aller aux familles de la communauté qui sont dans le besoin.

Ceci sensibilise les jeunes à l’importance des aliments locaux et naturels ainsi qu’à l’importance d’aider les gens dans le besoin. Cette activité les valorise également puisqu’ils apportent une importante contribution dans la communauté.

Crédit Photo : Charline Bourque

Oakville, Ontario

The 2017/18 salad bar lunch program launched at St. Dominic on October 4th, with the commitment of providing local food from farms & processors. Every Wednesday for the month of October, the students “dug into” local fruits and vegetables from farms in our area such as apples, pears, cucumber and tomatoes. We served them eggs, turkey pepperettes, cheese and ancient grain popcorn from local processors. As a special celebration for Farm to School month, we served fresh apple cider twice from Drummond Farms!

Crédit Photo : St. Dominic Elementary School

Peterborough, Ontario

The fall harvest is done. The beans (Hopi black beans) are tried and ready for next spring’s plant. As well they will be used in a number of different recipes. The cayenne peppers are dried and ground into our own cayenne powder. The other pickles have been pickled. Leeks and potatoes made for an excellent soup. The squash (Georgia Candy) has been baked and pureed for pies, breads and soup. Finally the garlic has been planted for next year.

Photo Credit: Peterborough

Vanderhoof, British Columbia

We have a strong Farm to School program at our school. Every student in the school participates in some capacity in the Farm to School program. Almost all student work at the garden, a greenhouse and large outdoor plot we have at the Vanderhoof Community Garden, which is a five minute walk from the school. The students learn to plant, tend and harvest a variety of vegetables that get used in the Salad Bar Farm to School hot lunch program in the school three days a week. Over 70 students a day get fed with a hot lunch, many of which are high risk children. Additionally, older students in the school take turns to help in the kitchen, learning cooking and life skills to help prepare the hot lunches for the rest of the school. Where possible, the kitchen staff source local food from Vanderhoof and area farmers for use in the hot lunch program.

Photo Credit: WL McLeod PAC

Montreal, Québec

John Caboto Academy has had a garden for over 5 years. We have been using the garden as an educational tool to form long lasting relationships to the natural world and to the food they eat. This year we had a zero waste harvest party to celebrate the hard work of the students. We had games for the school and communities to play that teach them about zero waste and the garden, we also made homemade jam, bread and soup to serve in reusable bowls and spoons.

Photo Credit: MELINA

Moncton, New Brunswick

Our students decided that they wanted to help the families in our school that don’t have regular access to produce; they had originally wanted to create a community garden but thought “what about the winter months”? The students then wondered if they could grow food inside and after some research they decided to try hydroponic farming. After discussing with a local company we took the leap! My students are current preparing to grow 300 heads of lettuce in their hydroponic system over this school year.

Photo Credit: Marc Merhebi

Oka, Québec

Les jeunes ont participé à la campagne d’AVIVA pour le potager d’ÉSO. Ce potager permet aux jeunes de cultiver la terre, #canadaterrefertile, de découvrir des légumes qu’ils ne connaissaient pas, et surtout de voir le chemin que nos aliments parcours de la semence à l’assiette. Ce projet permet aux jeunes TSA et DM un plateau de travail et une expérience de travail en serre et an champ avec toute l’équipe du Conseil d’administration de jeunes.

Ils rapprochent les jeunes à leurs environnement et à l’occupation du territoire, et leur apprend sur leur patrimoine agraire (leur école ayant été l’ancienne institut agronomique d’Oka où a été découvert le melon d’Oka et la poule Chanteclerc)

Vous pourrez aussi voir la construction du nouveau composteur que nous aurons à l’école!

Photo Credit: François Gervais

Moncton, New Brunswick

This aquaponics project is outside of class time and involves students whole come to work on it before school starts, at lunch and occasionally after school as well. They are learning about cutting edge methods of farming in controlled environments such as an aquaponics system. The students designed and constructed this system in the classroom with many lessons learned along the way that will be applied to phase 2. Currently, the students are in phase 1 (The Prototype) and have designed an aquaponics system that is planned to be fully automated and off-grid. Renewable energy will be used to power pumps and automatic food dispensers as well as sensors.

Phase 2 (year 2) will move beyond the prototype and scale up the project with the lessons learned from phase 1. Phase 2 will have a goal of providing fresh vegetables to the salad bar in the cafeteria and collaboratively work with the entrepreneurship students to sell the produce.

Phase 3 (year 3)will be to replicate and scale up the project again and establish an aquaponics system at our local Food Depot Alimentaire.

With the confidence acquired by seeing their projects and ideas come to life, soon they will realize that technology can bridge the gap between their imagination and solutions to societal issues such as food stability. Without food, an individual cannot thrive, without individuals we cannot form thriving communities and without community, we fail as a society. Extend this notion and it is easy to see that entire countries can fall based on food stability and be left behind disadvantaged.

Photo Credit: Brian Corbett

Norway House, Manitoba

We first started gardening in our school during the 2016-17 school year. We purchased 60 Rubbermaid containers and placed them in an open area at the center of our school. Each class was assigned a bin and were responsible, during the school year, for that bin. The location was perfect because it had large windows encircling the area so students could see the vegetables as they grew. Our yield this first year was good but we wanted to expand into a bigger, more open area. The second year saw more volunteers helping out, and, with the help of some farm equipment, we were able to create a much bigger garden.

The garden is currently approximately 11000 square feet. We had about 8 staff members who contributed to the garden and also numerous student volunteers. Next year we plan on setting up a basic irrigation system, a fence to protect it from animals, and purchase or build a shed to store the gardening equipment. We have plans to increase the depth of the soil in the future since some of it is shallow and also want to purchase more equipment that will help us make the garden more productive.

The vegetables we grew the second year included:
Carrots, Potatoes, Parsnip, Radishes, Lettuce, Tomatoes, Onions, Pumpkin, Kale, Cucumbers, Corn, Cabbage, Zucchini, Squash, Beans, Peas. and Beets..

The vegetables we harvested this year were distributed throughout the community. We hoped to encourage local community members to begin their own gardens. We have had meetings with Band members who were impressed with our growth and who want to start a community garden of their own. Some of the vegetables were also claimed by our school kitchen and served to the students and staff during lunchtime. Most were impressed with the size and taste of the vegetables.

Our goals for the garden have been successfully achieved this year. We have learned a great deal from this second year and hope to put our new skills and knowledge into improving our yields in the years to come. Problems will be overcome with time and practice and we know that our students and community learn the benefits and joys of gardening on their own.

Photo Credit: HBOIERC Photography Students

Fredericton, New Brunswick

At UNB the Campus Food Strategy Group hosted a Fall Harvest Party to promote local and sustainable eating. We hosted our event in the Student Union Building and had live music, pumpkin carving, apple cider, cookies, and apples & caramel. We wanted to create a fun way for students to de-stress and have fun on a Monday afternoon, while also learning about local food!

Photo Credit: Aiden Pluta

Dorval, Québec

Nous avons un potager et une fermette à notre école! Notre équipe d’entrepreneurs, les Dragons Verts, a vendu les produits de notre potager et les oeufs de nos poules aux parents de notre école. Tous les élèves de l’école se sont partagés les responsabilités liées à la ferme et au potager! Quelle fierté!

Crédit Photo : Aline Boisjoli

Brossard, Québec

Nous avons inauguré l’an passé un potager et un bac de compost dans la cour du préscolaire. Etant en milieu urbain très multi-ethnique ce projet est devenu un peu le centre d’attraction de cette cour .

Aménagement de bac pour potager afin de sensibiliser les familles aux enjeux entourant l’alimentation saine et locale ;

• Mobiliser familles et acteurs de changement à promouvoir la consommation de fruits et légumes locaux avec Implication des élèves du milieu.Dans une vision du verdissement de la cour d’école aménager sur les lieux nous tentons d’aménager un espace de rencontre extérieur pour les groupes classe .Ce qui a permi aux enfants d’échanger sur des projets en sciences ou de planifier des activités horticoles en cours d’année ,Présentement nous sommes a faire la récolte depuis septembre de poivrons oignons tomates et kale . Cette semaine nous avons l’intention de cuisiner quelques recettes…..

Comme le milieu socio -économique est moyen et que nous éprouvons des difficultés avec le vandalisme (graffitis),le verdissement des airs de jeux fait partie de notre projet éducatif dans le volet environnement.Cette année un comité d’élève participe à l’élaboration du plan d’implantation du composte.

Evenementiel :Récolte d’automne et découvertes de recettes avec les élèves du préscolaire et classe de 3 ième année

Crédit Photo : ecole Marie-victorin

Doyles, Newfoundland and Labrador

By taking part in digging potatoes and picking apples, the students got to see how to turn potatoes into fries and apples into apple juice and apple crisp. Armed with gloves, they dug into the ground to get the potatoes and witnessed Newton’s law of gravity first hand with apple picking. On their field trip, they learned the science of living things, math in calculating how much they needed for everyone, and physical education. After returning, they put their experiences to great use in writing and talking about their trip.

Photo Credit: Jackie Young