Head to Keshen Goodman Library Sunday (Nov. 15, 2:30pm) for a
screening of Slow Food Nova Scotia’s new documentary, The Edible
Schoolyard.
The film tells the story of a group of Summerville students with
green thumbs. Dr. Arthur Hines’ elementary students have been tending a
vegetable garden at school for nearly six years, as part of a
healthy-living initiative with Hants Shore Health Centre.
Gardening increases students’ physical activity, consumption of
vegetables and fosters community. Students prepare a banquet each
October during the Harvest Festival, with the help of Michael Howell,
chef and leader of Slow Food Nova Scotia.
“It’s madcap mayhem from dirt to plate in about three hours,” says
Howell. “We always throw some curveballs and some strange and new food
at the children.” Last year, they made a Thai red curry.
Dr. Arthur Hines’ teachers see gardening as educational, working it
into the curriculum for most subjects.
Garity Chapman, urban garden coordinator at the Ecology Action
Centre, says children can learn a lot in the garden, including patience
and ethics of care and responsibility.
Halifax Independent School and St. Catherine’s Elementary School
both have student-tended gardens. Chapman says the trend is
growing.
“I get approached by a lot of schools interested in starting
gardens, looking for funding or advice,” she says.
At Sunday’s event, Chapman will share stories of urban farms,
collective garden markets and community compost projects she
encountered on her latest research trip at Sunday’s event. She’ll be
joined by speaker Kathy Aldous, project coordinator for Dr. Arthur
Hines Elementary’s gardening program.
Those who can’t make the event can borrow the DVD of The Edible
Schoolyard, which is now available at public libraries across the
province.
This article appears in Nov 12-18, 2009.
