Food for thought

By Jennifer Hoegg

The Hants Journal/NovaNewsNow.com

A very special vegetable patch grows on the Hants Shore, tended by many loving hands. Its organic produce is nurtured by the students, staff and community of Dr. Arthur Hines School.

For the fifth spring, the Summerville elementary school’s 130 students are busy planting. Raised beds shelter lettuce transplants, and rows of turned soil wait to hold watermelon, potatoes, herbs, flowers, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, turnips, parsnips, squash and pumpkin. A composter built by students is brewing fertilizer for the growing plants.

Created by the school community and the Hants Shore Community Health Centre, the garden is a health promotion project and an opportunity for hands-on learning.

In the fall, the fresh vegetables are used by the school’s lunch program. In a unique project led by Healthy Living coordinator Jean Crawford, Grade 6 students help harvest, prepare, sell and serve the food to their classmates.

Health centre program coordinator Kathy Aldous calls the garden “the perfect health promotion project. You are physically active to grow the vegetables and you eat the healthy food.”

The garden feeds minds, too. Garden related projects -- from catalogue ordering to science and history projects to artwork -- are integrated into the curriculum of every grade. Retired principal and garden proponent Hazel Dill is impressed with how teachers have embraced the opportunity. “I’m so thrilled to see what they’ve done.”

Film stars

Other school communities can now peek at DAHS’ veggie plot thanks to a documentary produced with Slow Food Nova Scotia.

Sunshine, freshly turned earth and smiling students greeted guests at the film’s May 6 debut. “The Edible Schoolyard” follows the students from seed selection, through soil preparation and planting to harvest time.

Created by videographer Daryl Gray, the 20-minute DVD captures the joyful enthusiasm of the young gardeners. Slow Food Nova Scotia leader Brian Kienapple said the launch is the beginning of the organization’s efforts to speak to Nova Scotians about the slow food movement. The slow food movement promotes local food and preservation of culinary and farming heritage.

He hopes to see every school in the province embrace the idea of an “edible schoolyard.”

Kienapple noted, “we’re planting a seed. A seed that will grow into something very special.”

Broad support

Funny and inspiring, the finished project is a tribute to the children and their community. Many supporters help the garden grow -- from parent volunteers to Fundy Gypsum and Waste Management -- donating money, time, materials and manure.

Aldous and volunteers help out in the summer, pulling weeds when the children are away.

Everyone involved in the video production loves visiting DAHS.

Gray calls it “a truly exceptional school; it has a nice feeling.”

Slow Food member Chef Michael Howell, who is owner of Wolfville’s Tempest Restaurant, visits each fall to harvest with the students and guide them in providing a delicious meal.

On hand for the launch, Howell said he lends his chef’s perspective because of the payoff: “seeing the joy in their faces and inspiring them to eat well.”

Aldous and Crawford hope the healthy living lessons learned from the garden will influence the students long after they have left DAHS. “We’ve laid a sound foundation and that’s what is so great about working with kids. It’s easier to change their habits (than adults’.)” “An Edible Schoolyard” is available to educators through Slow Food Nova Scotia’s website: http://www.slowfoodns.ca.