Growing Food + Consciousness, One Seed at a Time

Since 2009, GUS upper school students have had the opportunity to learn about the problem of food insecurity and make a small contribution to its solution through the school’s partnership with The Food Project.

The Food Project started in Lynn using land adjacent to an elementary school, according to Miriam Stason, Beverly and Wenham Food Project Farm Manager for the past three years. The purpose, according to The Food Project website, is to “grow food on our farms and sell it through neighborhood farmers markets and businesses. Knowing that affordability is a challenge in our neighborhoods, we focus on building models for selling fresh food that work for both farmers and for low-income customers.”

About 13 years ago, as the Project expanded to the Trustees of Reservation site at Long Hill in Beverly, a vital need remained. They were in search of greenhouse space. “It is important to have a greenhouse or else you are buying seedlings which is expensive,” explains Stason.

A connection was made and, in 2009, The Food Project partnered with GUS to use half of the school’s newly renovated, 7,000-square-foot greenhouse to grow both food and social consciousness. “I appreciate this kind of collaboration and the use of the greenhouse,” says Stason. “People don’t

“ P E O P L E D O N ’ T R E A L I Z E H O W E S S E N T I A L T H E G R E E N H O U S E I S T O T H E R U N N I N G O F T H E F A R M . I T ALL STARTS HERE.”

“The Food Project brings together youth from across the North Shore to grow over 50,000 seedlings in the GUS greenhouse every year that are then planted on its North Shore farms,” according to the group’s website. “Each year, seedlings grown in this greenhouse provide over 65,000 servings of healthy vegetables that are sold, donated, and distributed to increase food access throughout the North Shore communities.” The Food Project also “leads workshops on planting and growing food and food justice, and co-hosts food system related films and other activities for both community members and GUS students in the greenhouse. realize how essential it is to the running of the farm. It all starts here. And it’s a beautiful space. It’s fun to have the students come out to the farm. It is probably the first time many have come out to the farm, though some of them may have a CSA share.”

How do GUS students get involved?

The Food Project generally visits the sixth grade class, offers a seed project, and talks about plant biology. In the spring, the sixth graders plant some seeds in the greenhouse. In seventh grade, students visit The Food Project in May to help get the ground ready for planting and learn about food

Growing Partners

2009: GUS/TFP partnership established

50,000: Seedlings sprouted each year in the GUS greenhouse.

LITTLE SPROUTS Seedlings planed by GUS students and The Food Project begin to sprout in the GUS greenhouse.

insecurity. Integrated into the seventh grade activities with The Food Project is a full day with Social Studies teacher Chris Draper and her Family Simulation Unit. Seventh graders visit a grocery store and are challenged with buying nutritious food within a limited budget. The food is donated to Beverly Bootstraps after math teacher Maureen Twombly helps them weigh it and talk about how it will be distributed. “It is great to visit The Food Project first and help plant the seedlings and get the ground ready for the people who need food,” says upper school science teacher Emilie Cushing. “To see that all the resources are right here in our community, all the organizations are right here for people to have access to healthy food.”

Finally, in eighth grade, students go to Food Project sites in Beverly at Long Hill and in Wenham to harvest, help with other tasks, and learn more about healthy food. This year, the crop was kale, not carrots as last year. Stason notes that it is important that the students make the connection of where the food is going and is needed.

“Some kids really love this experience,” says Emilie. “Some have never done anything like it before while others

65,000: Servings of healthy veggies grown annually

The Food Project believes that everyone has the right to fresh, healthy, affordable food. Their goal is to transform the food system into a more just, community-engaged model that supports food security for all while connecting diverse communities to each other and to the land. About The Food Project:

have experience with gardening. They love that they are really doing something that helps others get food. They are passionate and like to help others.” Seventh grader Morgan Proops agrees. “I never knew that a class of 28 kids could make that colossal of an impact towards the living and prosperity of our community,” he says. “ W O R K I N G W I T H C H R I S D R A P E R H A S O P E N E D M E U P S O M U C H M O R E T O H U M A N R I G H T S I S S U E S A N D H O W I C A N I N C O R P O R A T E I T I N T O SCIENCE TEACHING.”

Each spring, The Food Project is on campus every day with their seedlings, according to Emilie. “I would love to increase the involvement of GUS students in the process,” she says. “It completely ties in with what we teach. I would love to teach about nutrition. Is it a human right to have good nutrition? Working with Chris [Draper] has opened me up so much more to human rights issues and how I can incorporate it into science teaching.”

Stason, too, is open to expanding the involvement of GUS students. She would like to talk about what the school’s needs are and when students might be able to do some harvesting.

She definitely sees room for more collaboration, though much of what The Food Project does is in the summer. The Project is now leasing a larger farm site on conservation land on Larch Row in Wenham that will be its only growing site on the North Shore. This is public land that people can walk through, and more educational programs will be offered there. Nonetheless, Stason confirms that The Food Project will continue to use the greenhouse at GUS for growing seedlings.

Learn more: thefoodproject.com