Programs

We currently have four Seed to Table programs already initiated at the Sippican Elementary School in Marion and Wareham Middle School, South Coast Vocational School and New Bedford Global Learning Charter School. By giving students the opportunity to grow their own food, these programs not only improve school lunch nutrition and raise awareness about the environmental impact of food production, they also provide valuable teaching moments that are practical, hands on and that can be worked into existing curriculum. Incorporating environmental literacy into the core curriculum is currently a main focus for Biology teacher, Tracy Haswell, at New Bedford Global Learning Charter School.

The world-renowned Seed to Table program provides public school students with an organic garden and a kitchen classroom. Using food systems as a unifying concept, students learn how to grow, harvest, and prepare nutritious seasonal produce. Experiences in the kitchen and garden foster a better understanding of how the natural world sustains us, and promote the environmental and social well being of our school community.
 

Student participation in all aspects of the Seed to Table experience occurs as they prepare beds, plant seeds and seedlings, tend crops, and harvest produce. Through these engaging activities, students begin to understand the cycle of food production. Vegetables, grains, and fruits, grown in soil rich with the compost of last year's harvest, are elements of seasonal recipes prepared by students in the kitchen. Students sit together to eat at tables set with flowers from the garden, adults facilitate conversation, and cleanup is a collective responsibility. They complete the Seed to Table cycle by taking vegetable scraps back to the garden at the end of each kitchen class. The Seed to Table experience exposes children to food production, ecology, and nutrition, and fosters an appreciation of meaningful work, and of fresh and natural food.