Farm to School BC: Community Garden Program

After writing my last blog post, I decided to see if there were any BC specific farming programs offered for schools. A quick google search later I discovered Farm to School BC. They have tons of resources for educators, lesson guides, and courses offered to provide cross curricular learning opportunities for BC students. 



These programs can help guide teachers to begin their own school gardens, learn about crop planting, long term maintenance and more. These programs seem like the perfect opportunity for students to feel like they are making a positive contribution to their community while learning. This reminded me of what Kevin wrote in response to Werner's "Teaching for Hope" article.  Kevin mentioned in his response that "youth need to be encouraged to believe that they can make a difference in their world. It starts within their school community and they need to see examples of how other youth have made a difference." (HPTL, May 25th).  

Not only would a program like this allow students to connect with the land, collaborate, problem solve, and promote hope, but also help students self regulate by spending time outdoors. After lessons or different stages of construction/ planting, students could reflect on how they feel about their contributions. Currently, I do not know what I will be teaching next year because I was laid off, but once I am at the same school for multiple years I would love to use Farm to School to begin a school garden program. It's great to know that a program like this exists and has ample resources.    

If you are wanting to learn more about the programs they offer here is the website: https://farmtoschoolbc.ca/

Nearing, Kevin (2022) History and Philosophy of Teaching and Learning post, Retrieved May 27th, 2022. 


Werner, W. (2016). Teaching for hope. In Case & P. Clark (Eds.), The anthology of social studies [Volume 2] : issues and strategies for secondary teachers (Updated edition., pp. 193–197). The Critical Thinking Consortium (TC2).

 



Comments

  1. AnonymousMay 29, 2022 at 9:41 PM

    Hi Shanelle,

    Thanks for that "food for thought" ;) I have a friend who actually runs a program in Vancouver that is similar to this. She works with schools and teaches children how to grow vegetables, care for a garden, and talks about bugs (the good and the bad!)

    I think this would also be an awesome opportunity to incorporate some indigenous knowledge as well - perhaps having a guest speaker or someone in the community who would impart some knowledge onto the children? I think it would be a great way to honour the First Nations of the land on which we live.

    Thanks for sharing!

    Laura

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