BRATTLEBORO — This summer, education outreach coordinators from the Brattleboro Food Co-op are involved with a variety of programs that have grown from Farm to School initiatives.
These collaborative projects are providing learning opportunities on gardening and healthy food for youth in our community. The Co-op provides free nutrition education programs like these as a part of their community outreach effort.
At the Brattleboro Centre for Children in downtown Brattleboro, education outreach coordinators Heather Sperling and Meredith Wade visit the preschoolers to work in their small vegetable garden.
“It has been a wonderful process to be involved in,” said Sperling. “Back in May, we brought seeds, soil and tools to the Centre for the children to use. We read some stories about gardening and practiced the steps we would follow to plant our seeds and help them grow. The children are very excited about working in the dirt. It took just a few minutes before all 15 little ones had the garden space tilled, planted and watered!”
Each week, small groups of children visit the garden for weeding, watering, noticing the changes in the plants and sampling the fruits and vegetables of their labor.
Being patient for the plants to grow, ripen and be ready for harvest can be hard for preschoolers, so Sperling said she always brings fresh local food for the children to snack on.
“It is difficult for 3- and 4-year-olds to grasp the concept of time. During a recent visit, one little boy asked if the carrots were ready to be picked. When I explained that carrots are a root vegetable that take longer to grow than the radishes we were harvesting, he nodded his head. About five minutes later he asked, 'Are they ready now?
Another garden program is blossoming at Marlboro Elementary School. Last year, teacher Erica Morse led her third- and fourth-graders in building and planting a school garden. One of the challenges in establishing a school garden is, what happens with the garden in the summer, when all of the plants are maturing and the children are elsewhere in the world?
The Brattleboro Food Co-op's education outreach program has stepped in to help support the success of MES's garden. For six weeks, Sperling will be leading a summer garden camp on Tuesday mornings through July.
“There are so many benefits to teaching young ones how to grow their own food,” Sperling said. “In a time when the nation's obesity rates are off the charts, the combination of active outdoor time and eating locally grown food is extremely important.”
Sperling said the children are gaining valuable experience being successful gardeners, which encourages them to carry on with these skills in the years to come.
“I want the children to have fun working and playing in the garden,” she said. ”Gardening is a time for doing meaningful work. The children are able to see, smell and taste the products of their efforts. They really use all of their senses when they are involved with the whole process of the gardening, from seed to seed. And we always have time for playing in and around the garden.”
Each MES session includes a mini botany lesson and a cooking activity. “And of course, we always eat something really fresh and yummy!” said Sperling.
For questions about other free education offerings, contact Meredith Wade or Sperling at eocbfc@sover.net, or call 802-254-3267.