1st School Garden Training A Success!

On June 25th, we hosted our first ever School Garden Training as a voluntary professional development opportunity for Chicopee K-5 educators. We were thrilled to have a group of 10 teachers and paraprofessionals from six schools join us at the Stefanik Garden for a day of hands-on learning focused on building, maintaining, and utilizing school gardens. 

Thanks to Panera, Starbucks, Stop & Shop, and Bernat's, we were able to provide participants with breakfast and lunch to fuel a fun day of learning. We started off with a tour of the garden, led by FoodCorps service member, Molly Burke (pictured below). Molly has been busy working in the garden with Stefanik students this year! 

FoodCorps member, Molly Burke, shows off students' handmade inspirational garden signs in different languages.

After discussing ways to engage students in the garden and connect gardening to the curriculum, participants got to work building two 4x4 ft raised garden beds, which will become a part of the new Lambert Lavoie School Garden. Teams raced against each other (unofficially) to see who could put together their raised bed the fastest. Below is one of the teams with their beautiful finished bed!  

The winning team!

After our garden building session, participants continued to get hands-on by harvesting food for their lunch. We harvested kale for a big kale salad, and garlic scapes and basil for a delicious garlic scape pesto. Find the pesto recipe here. This was a great example of how easy it can be to cook with kids in the garden!

We loved this fresh garlic scape pesto! So easy to make and paired perfectly with sandwiches from Bernat's.

In the afternoon, we wrapped up the training with sessions on fundraising and starting a garden club, led by Bowe teacher and Farm to School Planning Team member, Harry Brandt. Mr. Brandt, a former journalist, walked participants through the process of creating a media packet to highlight their school garden program. He also shared his tips and tricks for creating a successful after-school garden club like the one at Bowe Elementary. Additionally, we discussed ways to save money by using recycled materials such as cardboard, milk cartons, pallets, milk jugs, etc. The possibilities are endless if you get creative! 

A big thanks to all of the incredible educators who came out to our training! We hope to be able to host more workshops in the future and continue to grow a network of school garden champions across the district.