Hands-on learning at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Elementary School
Posted: August 10, 2025
Categories: nourish to flourish / Schools
Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Elementary School
Waterloo, Ontario
Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Elementary school (part of the Toronto Catholic District School Board) is located in downtown Toronto, in the heart of the Wellesly-St.Jamestown neighbourhood. Our diverse student population is approximately 575 students (Kindergarten – grade 8), but they rarely get to experience gardening, planting, or enjoy green spaces (our school yard is paved with some trees).
Our school used the $500 grant money to purchase 1 XL mandolin slicer to support our school’s Student Nutrition Program (eg. to help make slicing cucumbers faster and easier!).
Our grade 8 students worked with their teachers to help haul up the soil to our 3rd floor balcony garden to repot and replenish our potted garden (of native pollinator flowers, some vegetables and fruits). On April 30 and May 1, 2025, our 4 Kindergarten classes along with our 3 Special Education classes participated in a 2-day Tomato Workshop, hosted and led by a community volunteer/gardener, Larry “The Tomato Guy” Zacharko. He has worked with other schools within the Toronto Catholic School Board. He even has a book written about him – What Grew in Larry’s Garden, written by Laura Alary, illustrated by Kass Reich (Kids Can Press, 2020). He grows tomato plants from seeds in his home, and then goes to various schools and teaches students about gardening, tomato plants, and how to care for their plants. He was given a small honorarium as a thank you for only a portion of the many countless hours worked. Larry teaches and promotes food literacy because he wants to share his love of tomatoes and gardening, especially to children who have little to no gardening experience. While at our school, Larry first worked with small groups of the older students from the special education classes. The students were then given the opportunity to be leaders and share their new found knowledge with the kindergarten students; this helped to boost their self esteem and hone in their leadership skills. The kindergarten students were so excited to touch, smell, look and feel the potting soil and their baby tomato plants. Every student took care of their plants at school, watching the tomato plants grow until ready to go home and be transferred into a larger pot at home. Since the kindergarten students have taken their tomato plants home, they arrive at school and excitedly report back to their teachers on how their tomato plants are thriving and growing at home (noticing the flowers, and baby tomatoes growing!). The hope is that in the Fall, our kindergarten students will be able to share with their teachers how their families enjoyed their own homegrown tomato plants over the summer.
Thanks to this $500 nourish to flourish grant, our students received authentic hands-on learning, and moreover, we “helped to endorse environmental sustainability and provided students with the knowledge and skills necessary to act as responsible stewards of creation.” (TCDSB https://www.tcdsb.org/o/corporateservices/page/environment).
From ELP/4 class – teacher Mr. D. Murphy and DECE Ms. I. Miraglia:
“We were struggling to find a way to fund our Spring plants gardening unit, because we didn’t want to ask our students’ parents for money. Thanks to this grant and to Larry, we were able to gift our students with hands on learning. The kids loved it, and they got to experience something new in their lives. They still come to us daily and tell us with pride how their tomato plants are growing at home. We would love to be given the opportunity to participate again next year!”