Grow Education News

Our FoodCorps members designed a lesson to connect to the third-grade history curriculum around the Boston Tea Party which was supported by an herbal tea lesson where students were able to pick and choose the loose-leaf herbs of their choice to make their own cup of tea.

Third graders at Brooks Elementary School in New Bedford participated in a tea party this past week. The lesson was created and facilitated by one of Marion Institute’s FoodCorps members, Olivia Rother, to integrate with curriculum being taught in their social studies class.

October is Farm to School Month, a great time to celebrate some of the accomplishments this movement has made on both the local and national levels. Locally, Grow Education is continuing to support the expansion of Farm to School on the Southcoast with teachers and staff from Westport Public Schools.

Weather and climate were a hot topic during recent Professional Development (PD) workshops that were held at Round the Bend Farm in South Dartmouth. On August 10th, we worked with an amazing group of teachers and administrators from Westport’s Elementary School.

As with every school garden, the summer brings less students and more sun! Over the years, local residents have become familiar with the gardens and know that they are welcome to harvest vegetables from the garden as they ripen.

June was an abundant month for Grow Education. Students had several opportunities to get into the gardens to participate in a ‘seed-to-fork’ experience. For the majority of our students, this was the first time they had the opportunity to participate fully in the process of growing vegetables.

April showers bring May flowers, lettuce, parsley, garlic and kale to the gardens of New Bedford Public School students. In partnership with teachers and students, we have been conducting our Spring Planting Days at 12 elementary schools across the district.

Throughout this past month, Grow Education supported a series of events that we called Community Recipe Meetings. The purpose of these events was to gather local parents, guardians and families to share family and cultural recipes that they would like to see on the school menu.