Young Gardeners
You guys are our future! As a former teacher, I enjoy the time I get to spend working with young people of all ages. It has always been a love of mine to share a good story with children. Today I'm also blessed to be able to share my love of gardening and farm life. Check out what's going on with our Young Gardeners!
|
The wonders of plants...
Plants come in many varieties! Many that people see as weeds are actually awesome plants! A few ways to start growing a plant is from seeds, baby plants or food scraps.
|
A Little About The Project
I'm so excited about this program! The youth in this program just think we're playing with worms, but actually we are doing a lot more. We will be learning gardening skills that can be used for a lifetime. Many people, at one time or another in their life, at least experiment with gardening. Here we will learn garden basics by starting with a worm bin. A worm bin is slightly different from a compost bin. The difference we will not get into at this time. Just know that...
Worms => Great Vermicompost => Healthy Plants=>Healthy People Worm bins provide healthy soil that is the basis of a good garden. That's why we are starting the program with a worm bin. From there, we will grow a variety of plants. Not only will we grow them, we will harvest the produce eat and cook in recipes. Any excess will be shared with a local food pantry. Doing this provides a win on many levels... 1. Gardening skills are learned 2. Healthy eating habits are encouraged 3. We contribute to the fight against food insecurities So what is a food insecurity? According to the USDA, it is the lack of access at all times to enough food for an active and healthy life. This is not just something that affects the homeless. Many people just don't make enough money to provide enough food for their families. Food insecurities can affect single parent households, households in which one or more income providers have lost a job or under employed families. It does not discriminate between singles, multi-member households, race, age, gender, educational background or level of employment. Anyone can be affected. Some short-term, others long-term. Helping to educate our youth about gardening techniques and strategies will help them not only to grow and eat a more healthy diet, but also grow food in abundance to share with others or to help their own grocery budget to go a bit further. |