School Projects

6 07, 2020

New School Garden Coordinator

By |2020-08-06T00:27:21-07:00July 6th, 2020|Categories: Club News, Food Program, School Projects|0 Comments

We are happy to announce that we’ve hired Tricia Sharpe as our new School Garden Coordintor. Tricia has been facilitating workshops and coordinating programs for youth since 2001.

She majored in Anthropology at SFU, and completed her minor in Education during a 2006 field school in Punjab, India. Her experience growing food and flowers has evolved over the years through many courses and workshops, including a Permaculture Design Certification, Linda Gilkeson’s Year Round Harvest course, and an internship at the Mason Street City Farm. For the last three years, Tricia and her partner have been working on intensive ecological restoration of 4.5 acres on Galiano; establishing fruit tree guilds and organic gardens for a small farm. Tricia says she’s “thrilled to be the new coordinator of the Galiano School Garden; combining her passions of experiential learning with youth and caring for plants, soil and pollinators!” While we’ll miss Patti Pringle and are so grateful she was able to steward the program through the last few months, we know the kids are in good hands with Tricia’s green thumbs.

Tricia Sharpe has been facilitating workshops and coordinating programs for youth since 2001. She majored in Anthropology at SFU, and completed her minor in Education during a 2006 field school in Punjab, India. Her experience growing food and flowers has evolved over the years through many courses and workshops, including a Permaculture Design Certification, Linda Gilkeson’s Year Round Harvest course, and an internship at the Mason Street City Farm. For the last three years, Tricia and her partner have been working on intensive ecological restoration of 4.5 acres; establishing fruit tree guilds and organic gardens for a small farm. Tricia is thrilled to be the new coordinator of the Galiano School Garden; combining her passions of experiential learning with youth and caring for plants, soil and pollinators!

18 07, 2019

Food Program Summer Roundup

By |2019-07-18T17:18:17-07:00July 18th, 2019|Categories: Food Program, School Projects|0 Comments

Afternoon Tea with Games

In May we tried a new event: An Afternoon Tea with Games. This idea sprang from requests we’d received from seniors. Some felt that our popular Thursday Games Night can be a little loud. (Admittedly Games Night can be a raucous affair with kids playing Twister and Hungry Hippo, and adults playing Ping Pong and Scrabble – who knew scrabble was so competitive?) So we decided to try a quieter games afternoon.

A dozen seniors showed up for our inaugural event. The majority played cards, though once again scrabble made an appearance, and all enjoyed a classic afternoon tea of scones, sandwiches and cake. Plus while they were playing the volunteers and I made dinner for anyone who wanted to eat at the end of the afternoon, or take something home with them for later.

So if a quieter games afternoon might be something you’d enjoy – then mark your calendar. We’ll try another one on September 26th at 1:30pm till 3:30pm – Come join us. (I promise there won’t be any Twister!)

CRFair Roundtable

On June 3, Emma attended the Capital Region Food and Agriculture Initiatives Roundtable on Food Literacy. There were interesting discussions about Food Justice, mostly around indigenous issues of land use and also barriers for refugees, and programs that are tackling these. There is a new food atlas at https://foodatlas.ca/ which includes the Southern Gulf Islands – check it out.

Gleaning Project

The Gleaning Project is in full swing for another season. We are once again organizing groups of people to pick surplus fruit, to be shared between the pickers, the landowners, the Food Bank and the Food Program. If you would like to be notified about picking sessions, please let Emma know and we’ll add you to our list. If you have trees that need picking, please email Emma.

Grandparents & Elders Lunch

On Tuesday June 1th Cathy’s class walked to the hall to cook lunch for 25 seniors. The kids did really well and the elders really enjoyed their lunch, with lots of lively intergenerational conversation happening around the room.

18 05, 2019

School Garden News

By |2020-04-12T23:45:57-07:00May 18th, 2019|Categories: Food Program, School Projects|0 Comments

The School Garden is one of the many Food Program projects on Galiano. Coordinators and community volunteers work with the kids, teaching them about gardening, ecology and how to grow food. Kids are involved in planning, tastings, and cooking their harvest. The Food Program also organizes a mini Nettlefest and Applefest for the kids.

The School Garden has a long and impressive lineage of Coordinators cultivating enthusiasm for gardening. Galiano students have had the opportunity to learn alongside Janice Oakley, Colleen Doty, Janna Feldman, and, most recently, Brahmi Benner.

Brahmi brought an educator’s perspective to the role, emphasizing open-ended, playful exploration of the children’s interests, as well as giving the children a safe place to practice with real tools to build skills. Brahmi is moving on and she will be much missed by the Food Program team and the kids and staff at the school for the amazing enthusiasm she brought to every event.

organic garden in my backyard. After working as a native plant nursery manager, my experience expanded to include a deep knowledge of food uses, plant propagation and seed saving of local plants.”

Patti holds a science degree and became a teacher, hoping that she would be able to work with the Galiano community. She is thrilled to have this opportunity to help with the school garden and to share what she knows with the Galiano students.

In the coming weeks, Patti will spend time getting students excited about the garden, planting seeds and doing some science. Students have begun a science experiment to study the effects of temperature on germination and will plant their results.

A school garden thrives when the coordinator is able to spend their time focusing on education and exploration, and the maintenance of the garden is shared between students and community volunteers. We invite you to join Patti at the garden and have some fun in the sun. This is also an opportunity to learn in a hands-on way. If you’re interested, please email Patti.

In the summer, the Food Program will be posting this position for a permanent Coordinator – see Facebook or email the Food Program for more information.

26 04, 2018

School Garden Update by Brahmi Benner

By |2018-04-26T21:14:58-07:00April 26th, 2018|Categories: Food Program, School Projects|0 Comments

As the new coordinator of the School Garden, I am excited to inherit such an inspired project. It is a privilege to learn about the garden’s creation and the tasty activities begun by Janice Oakley. It has been beautifully stewarded by Colleen Doty and Janna Feldman since. Alison Colwell has created delicious memories for our elementary kids. School enthusiasm for gardening has been well cultivated.

I am an Early Childhood Educator and I also look at the garden with this lens. Young children can learn through instruction but they need open-ended exploration. We’ll take a playful approach to soil, compost, and weeding. Robust edibles like mint and lemon balm can be tasted often without damage. These easy-to-interact-with elements help build motivation for the growing that requires more method and patience.

Greenhouse Coordinator Barry New helps us make the most of our soil and composting systems. Our spring seed starts are warm in the greenhouse and the Community Greenhouse group members have donated starts to the school garden. I hope to engage members of the Seniors’ Garden to share their knowledge and lifelong passion for growing with the children.

Another passion of mine is democratic and “emergent” education, which starts where the children’s interests already lie. Giving them a voice in the selection of the food creates an empowering and engaging environment. I’ve made planting lists with the K-2 class and will meet with the older grades. There are teachable moments in this conversation. When a six-year-old asks to grow bananas, we can discuss how climate affects our plants. The kids have also requested that we bring back the Pizza Garden, a round bed used to grow pizza toppings.

A garden is a safe place for children to practice working with real tools, such as hand tools that offer challenge and build skills. We are envisioning some fun structures for the kids to play in. Kids are drawn in by change and novelty, so we’re looking for volunteers to help us create bean houses; lightweight wooden structures that will grow walls of beans and other creeping vines. Giving our iconic scarecrow a makeover will be a fun textile activity. Festivals like Mini-Nettlefest and Applefest celebrate seasonal harvest and create meaningful connection.

The School Garden of 2018 will be a mix of great Galiano traditions and creative new ideas. We hope to see volunteers of all ages join us. Our next all-ages work party will be held on Saturday, May 12 at 1pm. Join us for snacks and coffee as we focus on soil, weeds and pruning.

31 05, 2016

Our BeeCause Bees, by Colleen Doty

By |2018-05-31T21:26:17-07:00May 31st, 2016|Categories: Food Program, School Projects|0 Comments

That March morning the school library was warm and smelled of cedar, beeswax. Weeks of anticipation–“When will they arrive?”–culminated. As two students and I approach the covered case, one student hyperventilates. “It’s ok,” I say. “The bees are behind glass.” We speak in hushed tones, overcome by rhythmic buzzing. I lift the cloth cover and we three exhale: ten-thousand pairs of wings shimmer on striped bodies.

In collaboration with Galiano Community School Principal Shannon Johnston, staff, teachers, and local beekeeper Brad Lockett, the Food Program received a grant from BeeCause.org and Whole Kids Foundation for an observation honeybee hive. The goal of BeeCause.org is to raise a generation of kids who love bees and respect the role they play in our ecosystem and food chain. BeeCause hopes to install 1000 hives in schools. Our school was the first and only, so far, in Canada to receive such an observation hive. To date, 174 other schools in the US, Haiti and the Bahamas have received hives.

Our school has embraced the bees. Now that the kids have experienced how gentle the bees are the initial fear has evaporated. Together, everyone’s been learning. “A bee only makes 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey in its entire life,” states Sophia. Dylan notes: “To make honey, bees regurgitate nectar from one of their stomachs…” The bees pass nectar from bee to bee until the desired consistency and water content are reached. The flavour of honey reflects the local pollinated flora.

“Our” bees access the outdoors through a tube drilled through the school wall. From outside, the hole sits three and half metres from the ground and looks like a bird house. A bee exits the tube and flies across the playground carrying another bee. “She’s removing the dead,” says Claire. “The girl bees do all the work!” exclaims Shekayah with a hint of indignation. It’s recess and the playground is filled with a cacophony only children can make: running, watching Leo the Lizard in the sand box. Meanwhile, honey bees fly overhead, an image of how things should be; all right in the world.

“Maybe we should check on the bees today,” suggests Finn. He means from inside the school library, to observe them through the case. I explain that we’re going to leave the bees quiet and dark to allow the queen to build up her brood. For now, we’ll watch them outside in the school garden, enjoying the blue flowers of borage, the asparagus that’s been allowed to bloom and the raspberry flowers that are appearing. The pear tree, we notice, has a particularly good fruit set this year. We have thousands of new friends to thank for this.

25 03, 2015

The Chemistry of Bigleaf Maples By Colleen Doty, School Food Program Coordinator

By |2018-05-31T20:06:59-07:00March 25th, 2015|Categories: Food Program, School Projects|0 Comments

December was ushered in with the Great Bigleaf Rake-Up at the school garden. With maple leaves buried under a dusting of crunchy snow, blue sky above, Galiano School kids gathered around two large maple trees on the school property to learn about densely rich maple leaves and the value they bring to other plants when composted. The kids were divided into four teams: Calcium, Magnesium, Potassium, and Nitrogen, and each team learned some interesting facts about these four elements that figure prominently in maple leaves. What also became quickly apparent was how humans and plants require the same nutrients in order to thrive! For example, blossom End Rot in tomatoes and osteoporosis in humans are both related to calcium deficiency. In another example, magnesium is required by plants to process and use amino acids, vitamins, and proteins, and similarly for humans, magnesium is used to process other elements, notably calcium and potassium. Whereas magnesium deficiency will result in yellow, veiny leaves in plants, a deficiency in humans will impact the functioning of muscles and organs.

The teams then gathered up fallen leaves and laid them around garden beds and the fruit trees in the school garden. Our garlic, kale, chard, and fruit trees were tucked in with several layers of rich maple leaves.

In our fragile Coastal Douglas Fir ecosystem, bigleaf maples can be seen as competitors to slower growing species such as the hemlock, Douglas fir, grand fir, and sitka spruce (Thomas, K.D., 1999; Haeussler S. et al 1990). Bigleaf maples have a large canopy that blocks light to trees below; their heavy litterfall can smother slower-growing saplings; maples have a shallow and wide-spreading root system that likely has a competitive advantage in shallow soils. However, bigleaf maples can play a significant role in nutrient cycling (Turk, 2003). As the leaves decompose, elements inside the leaves make nutrients available for biological growth. The forest floor around bigleaf maples is significantly high in available nutrients, most notably nitrogen, potassium, calcium and magnesium, and contains higher levels of most nutrients than conifer litterfall. Another bonus for the garden is that maple leaves decompose and lose their mass relatively quickly, thus rapidly cycling nutrients.

Bigleaf maples also play an important role in enhancing biodiversity by hosting a large number of epiphytes. An epiphyte is a plant that grows non-parasitically upon another plant, and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain and sometimes debris from other organisms. Ferns, lichens, and mosses are examples of epiphytes. Maples are very popular hosts!

As we arranged the leaves over the beds and stood back to admire the russet hues against the snow, my mind jumped ahead to spring. It won’t be long before we’ll be drizzling syrup over Maple Blossom Fritters.

30 10, 2014

Applefest – October 22nd, from 1-3pm

By |2018-05-30T20:45:42-07:00October 30th, 2014|Categories: Food Program, School Projects|0 Comments

In the words of one student: “Applefest is the best day EVER!” This year’s fun-filled, educational event will be held Wednesday, October 22nd, from 1-3pm at the Galiano Community School.

We are looking for donations of apple varieties for tastings. If you can spare a few apples for some tastings, or are able to volunteer your time to help us set up and run the activity stations, please contact Colleen at galianofoodprograms@gmail.com.

Thank you and we hope you can help support this special event for the kids.

30 06, 2014

Cooking with kids -Alison Colwell

By |2018-05-30T20:23:31-07:00June 30th, 2014|Categories: Food Program, School Projects|0 Comments

I thought I’d use this article to talk about some of the ways to get kids cooking. Kids that learn how to cook, are much more likely to try new foods and be less picky eaters when they’ve made the food themselves. I’m lucky enough to get to cook with the kids at the school on a regular basis – and I have two kids of my own, who also have lots of friends, that like to play in the kitchen – so whether you’ve got your own kids home for the summer, or grand kids visiting – here are some ideas.

I have a few basic kitchen rules – wash your hands (can’t repeat this one enough) and when you are cooking with younger kids it also means no wearing bowls on heads and no licking measuring spoons (I’ve seen it all!) – while you are cooking – once you are done bowl helmets are just fine. I also try to keep long hair up – off the shoulders – use a hair band, or bandana.

Get the kids involved in planning? Ask them what they’d like to make. When I’ve done this with small groups at the school, the answers have ranged from crepes to burgers, pizza to apple pie. I have yet to meet a kid with nothing they wanted to learn how to cook. So start there.

What I do have kids say, is “I couldn’t do that”. But they can. I teach 5 year olds how to bake bread. They can do it – with help and support, but measuring, mixing, are all things they do in play – this is just doing it for real. When cooking with kids it helps to have all the ingredients you are going to need out on the counter before you begin, plus the measuring cups and spoons and any other equipment you will need.

There are lots of recipe books designed for kids, or find a simple recipe online – print it out so that you can read through it together. When cooking, start at the beginning at go through slowly, step at a time. And sometimes you don’t need a recipe. One of my kids likes to “create” their own recipes. When the twins were four they learned how to melt chocolate chips in the microwave. Then they tried adding all kinds of things until they hit upon pecans – and “invented” chocolate covered nuts!

Nothing beats the satisfaction of being able to bring your own food to the table, or your own plate of brownies to guests.

10 05, 2012

What’s Shakin’ and Growin’ at the School by Janice Oakley

By |2018-05-10T15:09:41-07:00May 10th, 2012|Categories: Food Program, School Projects|0 Comments

Call me an optimistic aquarian because despite the headlines of environmental catastrophe and political doom I still see our way forward as a path well lit on the darkest night. If we travel along it in connection to each other and to the earth and all it’s variety of life we cannot go wrong. To truly love and take care of our planet it seems that taking care of ourselves is of utter importance also. Making sure we eat well and nurture our bodies in the way that is best for each of us. Now that I am on the fun side of 50 watching the upcoming generations and what challenges they may be facing I am moved more than ever to support them in healthy positive directions.

One of the ways the Food Program can do this is to commit to the school garden, community greenhouse and the healthy growing, cooking and eating projects that go on there. Staff and students are eager with any of the ideas we have shown up with over the years from Applefest and grafting to WORMFEST and composting…. One of the more involved activities we did together was a game where we uncovered the REAL cost of food taking in to account environmental costs through pesticide use, quality of life for workers and livestock as well. It was a real adventure in understanding the relationships between what we eat and how it is produced. Now that the school has beehives, the Pollination Game is a big favorite where kids get to be bees, trees or rain !

The tastings that we do on site from March through till Nov involve anything and everything they have grown. Have you ever seen school-aged kids elbowing their way to the front to get some sauteed turnip greens, or raw sprouting broccoli, broad beans and brussel sprouts that they just picked to share? Of course the maple blossom fritters and the strawberries (frozen from the previous year) were understandable favorites.

As the space and appetite for projects has grown, what really is needed is a time commitment from community members of an hour or 2 per week during the spring and fall seasons to ensure that the garden is well tended. Parents on Galiano are at their busiest time in their lives as they raise children and hold down several jobs as prices of housing and food all contribute to crunched schedules…. at afterschool softball practice there have been some willing and strong hands to get some spring projects like the PIZZA GARDEN planned and dug. The greenhouse group is passing on all kinds of starts to the kids and the children themselves have seeded many types of peas and cucumbers.

This gets me to our offer: I would like to invite people to become ‘Friends of the School Garden’ by pledging your support of just 5 hours to the school garden over the 6 months of April to October….. At the end of this there will be a most lovely surprise just for you ! Email or call in your intention of support. Work parties happen 2-3 times per week and are short. Right now Tuesdays from 3: till 5: are the best bet but also 3: on Thursdays is a good time to show up. Looking forward to working with you in our healthy, active, fun and tasty future projects.

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