Celebrate Ontario’s First Annual School Garden Day
Posted: May 21, 2013
Categories: Food in the News / Good Food Ideas for Kids / GoodFoodBites / News from Sustain Ontario / Schools
May 24th marks the first official celebration of School Garden Day in Ontario! School Garden Day 2013 will celebrate the excellent work of schools across the province to create opportunities for children and youth to learn about ecosystems, experience healthy active living, practice life skills and discover the benefits of fresh food through gardening.
This year’s celebration will showcase the garden project at Castlebridge Public School, which has created simple classroom planters so children can experience gardening. Says teacher Shamima Basrai, “At this point we are starting with indoor greening; eight classrooms will be planting herbs and vegetables in their room. They are using self-watering containers (thank you Ecosource for sharing this idea!) created by our dedicated high school student volunteer.”
School Garden Day will also mark the launch of an Ontario-Wide School Gardening Survey, which was developed in partnership with Green Thumbs Growing Kids, EcoSource, and the Ontario Edible Education Network. The Ontario-Wide School Gardening Survey will collect the stories, successes and challenges of school gardening across Ontario, and will inform the creation of a tool kit that will make it easier for schools to create and sustain gardens.
School Garden Day is being launched by the Imagine a Garden in Every School Campaign, which was initiated in 2012 by Green Thumbs Growing Kids. The mission of the Campaign is to link a groundswell of groups across Ontario working to connect children and youth to healthy living and the natural environment. The campaign was inspired by Dr. Roberta Bondar, who spoke at the official launch in 2012 and shared her view that “Taking people out of the classroom to give them a different lens on the world is very important, and I believe this is one of the big things that gardens do.”
The Imagine a Garden in Every School Steering Committee is supported by Green Thumbs Growing Kids, EcoSource, Foodshare, Seeds for Change, Sustain Ontario and Ontario Agri-Food Education. The Imagine a Garden In Every School is generously supported by The Heart and Stroke Foundation and TPH The Printing House. For more information about the campaign, please visit the Imagine A Garden In Every School Facebook page or www.kidsgrowing.ca/what-we-do/imagine-garden-every-school