Students construct Geodesic Greenhouse frame

Look at what students can accomplish when given the opportunity, training & support!



Students from Mel Johnson School & Grand Rapids School construct Geodesic Greenhouse frame in ~ 45 min. while participants of the FSD Annual School Committee Conference look on

Manitoba Healthy Schools Conference

Taking Action: Moving Evidence into Practice

Breakout Session:
A2 – Community Gardens – “and this is my garden”
Katharina Stieffenhofer co-presented with Don McCaskill, Assistant Superintendent, Frontier School Division

http://www.gov.mb.ca/healthyschools/conference.html

An Edible Education - The Bendale Project

"This is the cutting edge of edible education. What Bendale has is one step beyond a simple school garden but not quite an urban farm. It’s believed to be Canada’s first school-based market garden. It proves the educational value of food and all the ways it can be worked into the curriculum. And, if all goes as planned, Bendale will serve as a model for schools across the country. " Jennifer Bain

http://www.thestar.com/living/food/article/884942--an-edible-education

Carman, MB Film Screenings and School Garden Connections

All 3 screenings yesterday were fun, well attended & received
Susan, school gardener, PS 295 school, Brooklyn, NY phoned Eleanor re. starting letter exchange between ~ 13 students from both schools
Eleanor is taking a workshop on Video Skyping today - perhaps the students will connect with each other via Skype soon - dreaming big, maybe visit each other some day?

  

 

 

Screenings were:

10:00 a.m. Carman, MB, Wednesday Morning Group
2:30 p.m. Carman Elementary School
7:00 p.m. Faculty of Environment, Earth, and Resources, University of Manitoba

 (from - Katharina posting from facebook)

The School Garden Sharing Site - A great resource

check out the GardenABCs - The School Garden Sharing Site - full of great resources and info for anyone interested in edible school gardening and Food Literacy

http://www.gardenabcs.com/Home_Page.html

Inspiration for Gardening & Good Food!

 Susan, the wonderful school garden librarian from PS 295 in Brooklyn, NY, sent us a ton of really great links - so far my favourite is Maira Kalman's "Back to the Land" - NY Times - an absolutely delightful journey [of the mind] to Alice Waters' Edible Schoolyard with a few stops along the way. Enjoy!
http://kalman.blog...s.nytimes.com/2009/11/26/back-to-the-land/?th&emc=th

Back to the Land

kalman.blogs.nytimes.com

What does it say about us that we eat so much fast food and eat food so fast?
 from Katharina

Screening in Carman, MB announced - Feb. 16, 2011

And This Is My Garden Wednesday, Feb. 16 - 3 screening presentations
10:00 a.m. Carman, MB, Wednesday Morning Group
2:30 p.m. Carman Elementary School
7:00 p.m. Faculty of Environment, Earth, and Resources, University of Manitoba

Brooklyn NY - garden connection!

And This Is My Garden (Katharina) is talking with Susan Weseen, school garden teacher/librarian from PS 295, an Elementary School in Brooklyn, NY, re. connecting through Eleanor Woitowicz with the Mel Johnson School gardening students for exchange between students of both schools - how cool is that!

Read all about them here -
http://www.ps295.org/English/garden_program.html

HOME | PS 295: The Studio School of Arts and Culture, Park Slope Brooklyn

www.ps295.org

In June of 2007, PS 295 was selected as one of 20 schools in NYC to participate in the Garden to School Café Pilot Project. A collaboration of NYC Department of Education, SchoolFood; NYS Department of Agriculture & Markets; Cornell Cooperative Extension; GreenThumb;

Growing Food Literacy in Educational Institutions

Katharina reports on the Food Secure Canada Assembly that she attended in  November 2010.

"Ideally, school food gardens would be established as part of the core curriculum in every school across Canada & North America; growing Food Literacy toward greater Food Security. The school gardening movement is gaining momentum in Canada & the US and has been more established in some areas than others. "
Her full report is on the MAFRA Blog, lots of valuable & practical and information about the school garden movement across North America.

Growing Food Literacy in Educational Institutions


Katharina Stieffenhofer attended the recent Food Secure Canada conference in Montreal with the support of the Manitoba Alternative Food Research Alliance.

What's For Lunch ?

‎"What's For Lunch" great web-site and blog by Toronto writer & editor, Andrea Curtis
see blog entry about "And This Is My Garden"
http://unpackingschoollunch.wordpress.com/2011/01/25/and-this-is-my-garden-the-documentary/

“And This is My Garden”: the documentary

As a relatively new veggie gardener, I completely understand the way that a home-grown cucumber or tomato or bean can make its grower well up with a ridiculous amount of pride. I want to show the fruits of my labour to every hapless passerby on our downtown street. (I mostly restrain myself but it’s not always easy.)

So it makes a lot of sense to me when Northern Manitoba school teacher Eleanor Woitowicz explains in the new documentary And This Is My Garden that pride is one of unexpected side effects of school-based gardening.

Woitowicz says that food comes so easily for most of us—especially children who often don’t know what a tomato or cucumber plant looks like— that having to work for it really alters the way a person sees what they eat.

The doc, made by Katharina Stieffenhofer, is a story about what happens when Woitowicz and her fellow teacher, Bonnie Monias, start using gardens as an educational tool, especially linking it to the science curriculum. It follows the kids as they create and maintain backyard plots of their own so the learning continues outside the classroom.

The film won the “Most Inspirational” award at last year’s EcoFocus Film Festival in Athens, Georgia. Check out the trailer here, or you can buy the DVD from Stieffenhofer’s site. For Toronto-based school gardeners, there will be a screening during FoodShare’s upcoming school garden conference. See the schedule for details.

Short Video from Premiere from March 2010

And This Is My Garden Premiere!

www.youtube.com

A little bit of video from the Film Premiere in Winnipeg Manitoba featuring the Mel Johnson School Fiddlers.

I taped the Premiere of this film at the Gas Station Theatre on March 13, 2010. (posted by Wendy B.)  This is just a little clip from the evening.  The fiddle group was wonderful, came all the way from Wabowden to be at the premiere and perform.  Some of them also appear in the film.

Foodshare Toronto

 Just finished Skype-in to panel discussion after the screening of ATIMG at FoodShare Toronto Conference about school gardens, local food procurement & climate change
Excited hearing about Bendale Business & Technical Institute student market garden project, can't wait to learn more