This week we started off our field trips at Mountain View Elementary! We kicked off the field trips with the four Kindergarten classes spread out between Wednesday and Thursday. Before diving into the report of how the trips went I want to give some history of this program.
Michaela Winkley, my sponsor at the Food Bank, started this program around 2013 when she received a grant to teach nutrition education to elementary students at Mountain View. When she discovered that the job largely consisted of the typical ‘big dairy’ funded nutrition education that was dominant in the school system at the time, she began to think outside of the box about how to meet the requirements of the grant but still provide a valuable learning experience for the students. Michaela discovered that across the street at the St. Mark Lutheran Church a garden was hiding behind the building. The St. Mark garden has been established for over ten years and has done so much to help assist their community. There is a strong network of church members who have been working in the garden and working with Michaela leading the field trip program.
The garden is split into two sections, a community garden that consists of raised beds that church members and community neighbors grow in as well as a large farm-style plot that is dedicated to growing food to donate back to the community via the food bank. The church over the years has produced over 10,000 lbs of food for the community and is producing about 13,000 pounds a year. The students get to help plant in the food bank garden during the field trips which is a pretty special thing for them, they get to help plant food that will feed their communities. The church also has a 100% free laundry mat on its grounds to help assist the families of Mountain View.
After discovering the garden Michaela partnered with the gardening team at St. Mark and the field trip program was born. The students walk across the street and have an hour-long field trip with our team. Half of the class helps to plant with the church team in the food bank garden and the other half goes on a garden tour with Michaela and I where we discuss what’s growing in the garden and talk about basic garden ecology. I think we will have more planned activities for the older age groups, but with the younger age groups just getting time to explore and play in the garden is really impactful. The Church then provides a snack related to what is happening in the garden. This week we planted the pumpkin patch with the Kindergartens so pumpkin seeds were included in the snack menu. Mountain View is located in a low-income community and it’s pretty huge to be able to have an accessible outdoor education program available. It is really sweet to see the classes walking across the street to come to explore the garden.
The young grade levels, preschool, and kindergarten have always had my heart. There is something so magical about guiding that age group on adventures outside and getting to experience nature through their eyes. I feel really passionately about the importance of outdoor early childhood development and see myself working with them in the future. I have not worked with kids since before the pandemic so my teaching ‘muscles’ felt pretty rusty and I know it will take some time before I feel fully confident again. Michaela and I solidified my focus for the quarter and she connected me with the Preschool and Kindergarten leads at Mountain View I will have the opportunity to volunteer in their classrooms and gain more experience. I will start this next week as well as start our garden recess program back at Lydia Hawk where I will be facilitating garden time during the student’s recess periods.
This week I also spent time working at the Food Bank’s warehouse helping to organize and sort through seeds saved in the past. I also did a little work in the prairie garden but ultimately decided I want to focus on early childhood education. We have grant money for Lydia Hawk that needs to be spent by June so I will be helping Michaela put together material lists and organize the things that need to be done. I am also hoping to learn more about how the grant writing procedure works from Michaela.
On Saturday I attended a garden work party, which is a monthly occurrence around the community where a school garden workshop and tour is given and then work time is held. This one took place at East Olympia Elementary, a school garden that has been neglected over the years and is no longer in use. We helped to remove garden beds to create space for a parent volunteer to later level out the ground and hopefully revive the garden. I have been able to meet several other people involved in school gardens in the area as well as an Everggen CCBLA volunteer coordinator who helps connect evergreen students interested in education to internships like mine. It was really interesting to hear about other garden programs and I feel like I am just cracking open into this world. there is so much to see and learn and it feels really special to have someone like Michaela be there to help me navigate it.