What’s Growing On? March 2023 News from Grow Education

by: Adam Davenport, Grow Education Program Manager

Third Grade Students in New Bedford Continue Their learning About the Benefits of Making and Drinking Tea

After a long, spring-like winter we are now starting to feel the first awakenings of the true spring season. In the Grow gardens this means that the garlic seeds that we planted with elementary school students in New Bedford and Westport back in November are starting to sprout. Our FoodCorps members along with their students are beginning their spring observations of the gardens, including measuring the height of the sprouted garlic, something that they’ll continue to do each month.

Over the last couple of months, we have been busy implementing our Winter Presentations in student classrooms. These are a series of curated speaker events led by Grow Education staff and external subject matter experts in the fields of sustainable agriculture and nutrition. Students learned about how a farm system works from our friends at Round the Bend Farm in South Dartmouth, and were able to connect the dots back to their tables with a presentation on local food, nutrition, and food miles by nutritionist Katlynn Kisla. Additionally, our FoodCorps members execute unique food-oriented lessons in their school classrooms to further enhance Grow Education’s programming.

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.  Formative experiences like these can stick with students for a lifetime; learning that peppermint can help soothe your belly or chamomile will calm your mind are healthy tips we hope these students will continue to embrace.