A lot can be learned on a farm, especially one situated on the grounds of a high school.
Through the winter and early spring, Grade 9 students at Erin District High School will begin learning practical horticultural skills, all in preparation for spring planting season on an unused piece of land at the front of the school.
The local food initiative, known at the Youth Leadership Farm project, is a partnership between the school and Everdale, a Hillsburgh area organization that offers hands-on food and farming education.
The teaching farm, supported by Upper Grand District School Board and the Ontario Trillium Foundation, will turn the small plot of land into a teaching farm with raised production beds.
Everdale’s farm school coordinator Adrienne Sultana said the project is unique because it is entirely driven by students.
“It will be a student-lead project, with the students making basically all of the decisions about what is grown, how it’s grown, and the design and planning of the entire project,” Sultana said in an interview. She will facilitate the project.
The farm will be entirely horticultural. There won’t be any goats grazing or chickens scratching on the school grounds.
The vegetables grown will be used through a distribution chain that begins at the school’s cafeteria. Local businesses and restaurants will also have an opportunity to purchase the produce, and any surplus will be donated to the East Wellington Community Service food bank.
“The goal is to position students to have the skills and knowledge to make all of these decisions on their own, so that they are truly building and growing this from the ground up, in every sense of the word,” Sultana said.
Workshops throughout the winter and into the spring will cover instruction in crop planning and planting methods, and students will also develop their cooperative and leadership capacities.
As well, there will be opportunities to work with and learn from a local seniors group. Youth Leadership Farm will also offer a teaching space for school staff.
“I’m positioning this project as kind of a legacy for them,” Sultana added. “The students in Grade 9 this year are going to see it through for four years, and make the decisions that are going to impact the plan and the project. They will be able to return in years to come and see what’s happened, showing their families what they did.”
Lessons in what a local healthy food community looks like, and how our food is actually grown, will be learned along the way.
Learn more about Everdale at www.everdale.org.
