St. Lawrence County
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Farm to You Fest
Listed Date: June 20th, 2011
School:
Various
Project Summary:
Last year (2010), about half of all school districts in St. Lawrence County participated in Farm to You Fest: NY Harvest for NY Kids Week in various ways, including a common menu day with ingredients sourced from school gardens, local growers/producers and regional distributors. Local organizations, including the Health Initiative, Cornell Cooperative Extension SLC and GardenShare, provided support and resources.
Currently Involved:
Planning for Farm to You Fest 2011 is underway, and all SLC schools are invited to participate!
Contact Info:
Sarah Bentley-Garfinkel
Parent/Community Health Educator
sarah@gethealthyslc.org
(315) 261-4760 ext. 226
Canton Central School Garden Project
Listed Date: June 20th, 2011
School:
Canton Central School
Project Summary:
Our project began during the 2008-09 school year. A team including the high school agriculture teacher, an elementary teacher, the food service director and a parent/community health educator organized the project. In our third season (2010-11 school year), we now have 3 on-site gardens: a raised bed site largely planted and tended by classes; a site used for vine crops and heavily mulched for minimal summer maintenance; and a large plot (over an
acre) planted and tended by high school agriculture classes and FFA alumni. Families and community members rotate as weekly garden "adopters" during the summer months. We also have partnered with a local grower to plant potatoes on their land.
Currently Involved:
Interested classes tend the garden during the school year, and for the first time - June 2011 - we have salad from our garden in the cafeteria! We also host work days for everything from fence installation to soil moving. We plan on holding a Harvest Festival Fall 2011. A compost bin is also under construction for use beginning Fall 2011.
The school is very supportive of the project, and we receive financial support by writing grants and from local donors.
Future Activities:
We hope to fence in all of our garden areas in the near future. A local grower has offered to donate all the green and yellow beans volunteers can pick Summer 2011, so we plan to hold harvest and bean freezing work parties. We also hope to refurbish the greenhouse to start our own plants, and to purchase more produce from local growers to supplement the garden goodies. Finally, we plan to highlight the garden during Farm to You Fest again this year.
Successes, Challenges:
Our greatest success is the outpouring of support from the community, especially our volunteer adopters.
Challenges include finding time to organize the project.
Contact Info:
Sarah Bentley-Garfinkel
Parent/Community Health Educator
sarah@gethealthyslc.org