'Garden-to-Cafeteria' pairs high school students with Franciscan Sisters
Original article can be found http://fslf1.legacy-web-2.getliveedit.com/Blog/News/Garden-to-Cafeteria-pairs-high-school-students-with-Franciscan-Sisters/ and was published July 24, 2013
The Franciscan Sisters and Little Falls Community High School’s staff and students are working together to grow vegetables. The benefits are more far-reaching and long-lasting than their yield of tomatoes and onions will produce.
The Minnesota Agricultural Education Leadership Council (MAELC) has funded the High School’s Vegetable Garden-to-Cafeteria program.
The grant, for $9,081.22, will cover the salary of an adult supervisor working this summer, according to Supt. Stephen Jones. “In addition, the grant will fund a storage shed at St. Francis Convent campus, purchase a tiller, a string trimmer, and a utility wagon. The school district will fund the salaries of five summer student workers to assist at the nearly two-acre garden site. A 40-year-old greenhouse at the high school is being replaced through a collaboration of fundraising efforts by the high school agricultural department and the school district."
The goals of the project are to provide students and staff with a healthy and sustainable food source, educate students about the genesis of food, engage students with experiential learning, highlight careers in agronomy and plant production and increase the visibility of students within the community, according to Maxine Strege who helped to write the grant and is a Franciscan Associate.
The organic vegetables, harvested this fall, will be purchased by A’viands Food Service at market value and supplement school meals.
Jones added, “The response for this project within the Little Falls area has been fantastic. People in the school district are quite pleased to see us assume a leadership role in not only teaching young people about healthy eating but actually putting substantial quantities of freshly grown organic vegetables on their school trays. The opportunity to partner on the project with St. Francis Convent solidifies the district's desire to be viewed as a community asset...a district we hope that Little Falls area residents can be proud of."
Sister Ruth Lentner, who has a horticulture degree from North Dakota State University, manages the Franciscan Sisters’ organic garden and works directly with the high school students. “The project essentially triples our garden area,” she said. “I find working with the students to be refreshing. All of them are enthusiastic about their work.
“Julie Pekula, the student supervisor, and I work together to teach about how to plant and care for what we’ve planted and try to change the kinds and variety of work each day. The students are learning about how and what to add to the soil to keep our gardens organic. Since it is our first year, we are doing a lot of projecting about what to plant and how much of each vegetable to plant,” Sister Ruth added.
High School Vocational Agriculture teacher Doug Ploof said, “The garden project is an opportunity to teach sustainable agriculture to students in horticulture and plant science. We will be using the new greenhouse to teach lessons in garden design, plant culturing, propagation, plant maintenance and organic care of vegetables and fruits for the school garden.”
Ploof added, “Students in the fall will be involved in harvest, storage and clean-up of the garden. Our Family and Consumer Science teachers, Julie Slettom and Becky Smieja, will have their students working with recipes and the produce in their classes.”
Principal Tim Bjorge said, “Agriculture teacher Doug Ploof has built a wonderful relationship with Sister Ruth and the Franciscan Community. We look forward to ‘growing’ this relationship and working side by side with the sisters.”
Strege added, “This is a wonderful opportunity for our Little Falls Community High School students to partner with the community in a project that engages students with experiential learning for living a healthy lifestyle. We are very blessed to have Superintendent Jones and the Franciscan Sisters create this partnership for our students. It will be fun to see it develop and grow.”
The Minnesota Agricultural Education Leadership Council (MAELC) has funded the High School’s Vegetable Garden-to-Cafeteria program.
The grant, for $9,081.22, will cover the salary of an adult supervisor working this summer, according to Supt. Stephen Jones. “In addition, the grant will fund a storage shed at St. Francis Convent campus, purchase a tiller, a string trimmer, and a utility wagon. The school district will fund the salaries of five summer student workers to assist at the nearly two-acre garden site. A 40-year-old greenhouse at the high school is being replaced through a collaboration of fundraising efforts by the high school agricultural department and the school district."
The goals of the project are to provide students and staff with a healthy and sustainable food source, educate students about the genesis of food, engage students with experiential learning, highlight careers in agronomy and plant production and increase the visibility of students within the community, according to Maxine Strege who helped to write the grant and is a Franciscan Associate.
The organic vegetables, harvested this fall, will be purchased by A’viands Food Service at market value and supplement school meals.
Jones added, “The response for this project within the Little Falls area has been fantastic. People in the school district are quite pleased to see us assume a leadership role in not only teaching young people about healthy eating but actually putting substantial quantities of freshly grown organic vegetables on their school trays. The opportunity to partner on the project with St. Francis Convent solidifies the district's desire to be viewed as a community asset...a district we hope that Little Falls area residents can be proud of."
Sister Ruth Lentner, who has a horticulture degree from North Dakota State University, manages the Franciscan Sisters’ organic garden and works directly with the high school students. “The project essentially triples our garden area,” she said. “I find working with the students to be refreshing. All of them are enthusiastic about their work.
“Julie Pekula, the student supervisor, and I work together to teach about how to plant and care for what we’ve planted and try to change the kinds and variety of work each day. The students are learning about how and what to add to the soil to keep our gardens organic. Since it is our first year, we are doing a lot of projecting about what to plant and how much of each vegetable to plant,” Sister Ruth added.
High School Vocational Agriculture teacher Doug Ploof said, “The garden project is an opportunity to teach sustainable agriculture to students in horticulture and plant science. We will be using the new greenhouse to teach lessons in garden design, plant culturing, propagation, plant maintenance and organic care of vegetables and fruits for the school garden.”
Ploof added, “Students in the fall will be involved in harvest, storage and clean-up of the garden. Our Family and Consumer Science teachers, Julie Slettom and Becky Smieja, will have their students working with recipes and the produce in their classes.”
Principal Tim Bjorge said, “Agriculture teacher Doug Ploof has built a wonderful relationship with Sister Ruth and the Franciscan Community. We look forward to ‘growing’ this relationship and working side by side with the sisters.”
Strege added, “This is a wonderful opportunity for our Little Falls Community High School students to partner with the community in a project that engages students with experiential learning for living a healthy lifestyle. We are very blessed to have Superintendent Jones and the Franciscan Sisters create this partnership for our students. It will be fun to see it develop and grow.”