An update from The Community Wellness Project (CWP) - 2024 Activities to support the Farm To School Program!

It’s been a LONG wait for warm weather! But we’ve been busy throughout the quarter and now, things are really starting to perk up!

Community of Practice Our East Jefferson County garden educators have met twice to share ideas and plan for garden education programming. Recent topics: sharing success and challenges, songs for little ones, and current projects. They identified some “wishes”: teacher training and visiting other programs (e.g., Whidbey Island). CWP provides snacks and small stipends for those who take time to attend with funds raised at the 2023 Harvest Dinner.

GROW Grant Progress The Healing Garden is coming along! It’s a collaboration with District Administration, 4th Graders, Chemakum elder Rosalee Walz, and Candice Cosler (landscape design expert). They are transforming the welcoming space, front and center at CES, to include native edible and medicinal species, with signage and website links to student-created plant guides featuring bilingual Chemakum/English names, and a peace pole donated by the Rotary. P.S. Thank you, Food Coop for this grant!

CES 5th/6th graders have designed a native pollinator/windbreak along a 100’ section of garden fence to include Saskatoon, elder, crabapple, salmon berry, salal, trailing blackberry, wild strawberry, and more.

Ocean Guardian conservation and restoration: blackberry/scotch broom removal with 5th/6th, and increased plantings of native trees and shrubs at both new installations.

Continued food/nutrition projects, including vegetable stew with all six plant parts (roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds), and early spring green sauce (a pesto of pea vines, chickweed, dead nettle, and clover, with gf crackers and apple slices) for 1st grade, and roasted sunchokes for 3rd grade. On the fly tasting of forageable greens: miner’s lettuce, chickweed, dead nettle.

Side-by-side, fancy greens salad for 4th/5th: radicchio, arugula, mache, and purple sprouting broccoli, with 2 dressings: honey ginger and honey Dijon.

The primary school students LOVE working in their garden and elementary students are maintaining the High School Garden by planting cover crops and collaborating with the Food Services Director Justin about cafeteria foods they can grow.

Thank you again Food Coop (and the community for buying those Farm To School apples) for continuing to support our mission. We really appreciate you!!