Bellview Garden

bellview

The Bellview garden was born in 2009 as a Ford Foundation grant project. It has grown over the years thanks to the support of the Farm to School Program and the coordinated efforts of Bellview teachers, especially our Garden Coordinator and Reading Specialist Rebecca Gyarmathy.

In the spring of 2013, Bellview grandparent Mary Foster helped us write a Carpenter Family Foundation Grant for our beautiful new gazebo. This fall, Farm to School has helped connect us with the FoodCorp program which will provide Bellview with a Garden teacher to work with classes every Monday beginning the third week of September. Be on the lookout for information regarding our new after school garden program.

Big Garden News!
 

Thanks to our connection with Rouge Valley Farm-to-School we have a Food Corps service member assigned to Bellview this year to work with classes out in the garden. FoodCorps is a nationwide team of leaders that connects kids to real food and helps them grow up healthy.  They do this by placing motivated leaders in limited-resource communities for a year of public service. Working under the direction of local partner organizations, like Farm-to-School, they implement a three-ingredient recipe for healthy kids. Our Service Member teaches kids about what healthy food is and where it comes from, builds and tends our school garden, and if we are lucky, bring high-quality local food into our school cafeteria or in the classrooms for healthy snacks.

Our FoodCorps service member is Lisa Elridge and so far I have heard nothing but good things from the teachers who are participating in the program.  In order to participate in the program teachers had to dedicate to bringing their class out into the garden and learn from Lisa at least 10 times throughout the school year.  Already I have seen wonderful learning opportunities and the garden getting the love, attention, and maintenance it needs.  Thank you Food Corps!

Speaking of maintenance, Lisa has organized a clean-up day with other Food Corps members to come to Bellview and help decrease our weed population and get the garden whipped into shape.  Lisa could have picked another school she works at, but she chose Bellview!  PLEASE come and join us!  The more people that show up the bigger difference we can make.  Even a half hour of your time can make a big difference!  Mark your calendar for October 12th from 10am-12pm.  The garden is located in the back left corner of the playground field.  There is a fence and a bright yellow and blue shed.  See you there!

food corps

To learn more about FoodCorps
visit their website at: www.foodcorps.org

Garden flyer.pdf
(268.8KB) 


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