Good Afternoon New London County School Garden Network Members:

Upcoming Meetings:  

Please join us for our upcoming New London County School Garden meeting on April 5, 2016 at 4:00pm at FRESH New London, 45 Broad Street, New London, CT. 

Grant Opportunities:

Seeds of Change is accepting application from school gardens just like yours. For more information:
https://www.facebook.com/seedsofchange
 

Outdoor Edible School Garden Mini-Grants due March 25, 2016

Ledge Light Health District is now accepting application from any school in New London County (yes, even those funded before) for round two of our Outdoor Edible School Garden Mini- Grants.  Please go to http://llhd.org/farm-fresh for an application. For more information contact Cindy at 860-448-4882 ext. 302.

Farm to School Spotlight: Taking A Bite Out of Food Waste at East Lyme Middle School

 

Here in the Blue Crabs Kiva at East Lyme Middle School, we love compost! And that’s an understatement! “Compost is pretty neat” said Dana G., an 8th grader in the Blue Crab Kiva. “It’s great that we are taking a healthier approach to snacks.” For snack each day we encourage kids to eat whole foods instead of junk food to have a happy healthier life and to teach kids about compost. In our Social Studies room, we have a compost bin where kids can throw in, well, compost! Things like apple cores, banana peels, orange peels, and anything else that can be composted. But this year, we have seen a decline in compost and an increase in candy wrappers and chip bags. That is something that we just can’t handle. So we have started a new movement to get our kiva and the school and maybe even the town to start composting. Our first step is our kiva composting competition where each home base will have their own composting bin and every week or so we will weigh the amount of compost each home base has. If a home base reaches the weight amount, they will receive an apple on their home base branch on a tree cutout outside of our kiva on our bulletin board. Our big plan for this competition is to get the school involved with a composting bin in the cafeteria to show kids how great composting is. Scott Galbo, another 8th grader in the Blue Crabs said “I feel like with this competition we have started, more kids are going to start to love compost.” And our grand plan is to get the whole town involved in compost for their home gardens instead of un-natural fertilizer."​ - 

This update was written by Adam Cappozzoli, an 8th grade student and one of the leaders of the Blue Crab compost initiative.

All Things Worms

 It seems that it is this time of year that school garden educators are planning out their gardens, purchasing or getting donations of seeds, stocking up on supplies to enhance garden and growing activities that support their science, math and language arts objectives. Well, throw some worms in the mix and you have a ready made winter garden related activity!  Thank you Nancy Warner of the Charleston Worm Ladies for presenting at our January 27th meeting.  It was inspiring to hear how worm composting can boost school gardens and make for important lessons in the classroom. For those of you that missed it you can visit their website at www.wormladies.com or email Nancy at wormladies@verizon.net.    

January Meeting Recap and Kids Dig In

Kids Dig In - School Garden Activities:  

We are so happy to be wrapping up our activity guide for school garden educators.  
Kate Callahan will be the guest at our next School Garden Network Meeting.  She will be sharing a lesson called the Wiggly Worm.  Here is a list of the materials you'll need. 

Kit 1 (Life Cycle) 

Worm Life Cycle Models (Quart Size Bag) - We'll supply this in our kit

Kit 2 (Worm Behavior)

2 Shoes boxes

Paper Towels

Black Construction Paper

Flashlight

Kit 3 (Compost Sort)

Compost Stew By Mary McKenna

Laminated Recycle, Trash, Compost Cards

Assorted Materials:

Laminated Food Scrap Cards (Banana Peel, Apple Core, Cheese, Celery, Bread, Carrot Peels) Garden Waste Laminated Cards (Grass clippings, leaves, straw, weeds) Cereal Box, Plastic Water Bottle, Egg Carton, Newspaper, Piece of Copy Paper, Aluminum Can, Aluminum Foil, Styrofoam Cup, Yogurt Cup, Glass Bottle, Corrugated Cardboard Sheet, Brown Paper Bag

Outdoor Edible School Garden Mini-Grants:

This year Ledge Light Health District is offering four - $500 Outdoor Edible School Garden Mini-grants are reserved this year for schools that have not received funding in the past. We hope that you will apply if you are just starting your school garden program and need some added support. Click here( X ) for an application or email Cindy at cbarry@llhd.org

Think Spring:  Michigan State University Extension outlines what to consider when planning your school garden.

FREE SEEDS:

We still have plenty of seeds left for your spring planting. Contact Cindy or submit and application to Harts - Info found on the right banner of this post. 

URI Offers a FREE Seed Program - Applications are due on February 28, 2016

We hope to see you all at the next meeting!  happy composting and  Everyone!