Food in our school, food in our community

Work Oriented Training Program (WOTP) students at St Michael’s in the town of Low jumped into action and took over food preparation for their school two days a week after a local restaurant that provided school meals ended that service. The class also made sandwiches daily for several students who are undernourished.

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As if that was not enough, the class wanted to support seniors in their community. They took some of the by-products (such as chicken bones for making soup) and made meals for members of the community who are shut in or less mobile.
The project was fully integrated into the curriculum and taught practical skills like procedures for safe handling of food and working in a professional style kitchen.

Their teacher, Billy Boudreau, commented, “The students are more engaged by projects, especially those that require much hands on work. This project helped to allow for that to happen.”  The students also learned the “value of giving back to the community and making healthy choices.”
Among the greatest successes were “the students’ personal feeling that they had accomplished something real, and the fact that students who come from lesser means were able to get a lunch.” 

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This is a great example of service learning; students identifying an authentic need, coming up with a solution, all the while learning and making a    contribution to their community.

Snacks from the Garden

Snacks from the Garden

Richmond Regional High School CLC

Danielle Hamel

Richmond Regional High School has a beautiful community garden, which Math and Science teacher Danielle Hamel decided to incorporate into her lessons.

Secondary-one science students started seedlings in March and transplanted them in the garden outside before the end of the school year.  When the students came back after the summer, they harvested what they had planted.

 

Throughout the summer, Ms. Hamel, a local resident of the community collected the most abundant fruit and vegetables which included zucchini, black berries, strawberries, tomatoes and garlic and placed them in her freezer at home.

When October came, she was teaching proportions in her secondary-two math class and had the students double or triple recipes for smoothies, muffins and dips. The class then spent a period cooking and baking.  Surprisingly, for some students, it was their first experience and some found it quite a challenge, but most students enjoyed it.

Through an annual survey of students, it was discovered that the healthy eating habits of teenagers could be improved.  The genuine service the students provided was the promotion of healthy, locally grown food. 

Students were asked to make pamphlets that included the recipe, nutritional facts and fun facts about the fruits and vegetables. The class then shared the snacks with the students from the high school, the elementary school, the nursery school, the day care and two local senior homes. The class wanted to promote locally grown, healthy snacks as well as reaching out to our community, showing positive things that the teens are doing at the high school.

To read more about the project, click here.

Growing up Green at Parkdale

Parkdale CLC

This past year nearly 100 children of Parkdale Elementary had the opportunity to participate in a great new program called “Growing up Green at Parkdale”, which had several interesting components woven together.

The heart of the project is the vegetable garden, and a focus on the mutual importance of both healthy eating habits AND a healthy community. We tried to make the garden a non-stressful environment. Through the initiative children got to work along side their friends as well as teachers, including ALL of Parkdale’s French teachers, which was a great experience considering the English dominant environment of Parkdale elementary. The project was a great success exposing our children and their families to healthy habits; which is an identified goal at Les Tables de Concertations (Youth Planning Table) in our region.

During the project children involved themselves by not only choosing which vegetables the school would plant but also planting with their grandparents helping aid in the strengthening of family and community while learning the importance of healthy living with a particular focus on both French and English.

The booming success of this project was a direct result of our collaborative efforts through our various partners that allowed us to apply for more grants and allow this idea to develop. Of those who made the entireendeavor possible as well as successful EMSB, CHSSN, Quebec en Forme, Vert-Cité (Éco-Quartier of St-Laurent) and AREQ du Ruisseau Raimbault  are amongst the most notable.

Also, the highly knowledgeable horticulturalist hired by the Éco-Quartier  and graphic designer Don Royer (for helping with the creation of the Calendar) were invaluable aids throughout the entire project. No partner is greater than another and thanks to the efforts and contribution of everyone involved the children benefit most of all taking with them not only some soiled hands but also the seeds of success.

 Parkdale created two 2013-2014 School Calendars... Click Here to view!