Let’s Grow Together!

Reflecting on our March Garden Workshops & Celebrating National Garden Month

According to the National Gardening Association, “Every April communities, organizations, and individuals nationwide celebrate gardening during National Garden Month. Gardeners know, and research confirms, that nurturing plants is good for us: attitudes toward health and nutrition improve, kids perform better at school, and community spirit grows. Join the celebration and help to make America a greener, healthier, more livable place!”

This March, we partnered with the VT Community Garden Network (VCGN) and the Retreat Farm to host a gathering for school garden champions in southern Vermont. This workshop, called Let’s Grow Together, was a time for school teams to identify needs, connect with resources, share stories, and spend time hashing out plans for 2019 school gardens. It is also the first in a series of workshops we will be hosting for educators to come together and focus on different aspects of farm to school programming. We began the evening with a presentation by the VT Community Garden Network about Community Engagement in School Gardens. Libby Weiland, Statewide Network Coordinator for VCGN, shared examples and best practices for engaging families and community members in school gardens from across the state. Following this discussion, attendees broke out into teams to start drafting plans for spring. A few highlights include:

• Green Street School’s plan to create a rooftop garden

• Bellows Falls Middle School’s plan to host a garden tour and community gathering this fall

• Edible Brattleboro’s intention to share sheet mulching resources with workshop participants

• Renewed interest in Harvest of the Month Taste Test training for parents & teachers

Thanks to Kevin Stine, Food Connects Board Member, Master Gardener, and Master Composter for sharing his wisdom that evening. And of course, big shoutout to Ali West, Food Service Director for the Brattleboro Town Schools, for preparing a delicious feast of roasted sweet potatoes, massaged kale salad and root vegetable soup!

What will your school do to celebrate National Garden Month?

Farm to School Program to Expand Professional Development Offerings

As Farm to School programming continues to grow in local schools, Food Connects’ Farm to School team is gearing up to train and support even more educators. We are excited to connect with new teachers, child nutrition professionals, and community partners to share best practices from schools across Vermont and New England.

We understand that connectedness is essential to the success of farm to school programming in southern Vermont. We know that this kind of education cannot happen in silos and it’s clear that our southern Vermont school partners feel the same way. In an effort to facilitate peer learning, resource sharing, and general connectedness in the farm to school community, Food Connects will kick off our “Let’s Grow Together” series of workshops for farm to school champions this spring. Workshops will be content-specific, including topics such as composting, seed-starting, cooking with kids, school food 101, farm to school curricular connections, and much more!

It is our hope that these workshops will serve as a space for farm to school partners to gather, learn, and inspire one another. By creating these “communities of practice,” we hope to help make farm to school programming easy, sustainable, and fun! Stay tuned for more details.

We are eager to learn more about your professional development needs and interests, so please reach out to our team with any ideas you may have.

Learn more about our Let’s Grow Together series today!