Jack Day, 18, and Milton Cavallari, 16, co-ordinate their efforts as they assemble a stainless-steel frame for Bradford District High School’s vegetable garden.
“We’ve come to grow fruits and vegetables for the community,” explains Day, bolting together a corner as his final days in high school come to an end.
“I like to have more experience so that I can use it in the future to help people … so in the future I can have a great life,” added Cavallari.
Groups of students are working hard not just during the school year, but into the summer as well to create a bounty of food to be shared in the community this summer and fall.
For the past decade, students and staff at Bradford District High School have been planting and tending to a garden. The fruits of their labour are then shared with members of the community.
This year, the community gave back.
Through funding provided by TD Friends of the Environment Foundation and Conquest Steel, members of the school’s garden club and green industries class were able to give the garden a bit of a makeover, creating a more accessible workspace.
Cedar frames hugging the ground have been replaced by raised stainless steel frames, making them easier to access. In total, the 18 beds provide about 500 square feet of grow area, which is expected to result in about 500 pounds of food, enough to feed more than 50 people.
“The four-foot beds are accessible so there’s no bending and lifting when you’re harvesting and planting,” explains Natalie Swaak, the school’s new green industries teacher. That means seniors and students with limited mobility can participate in the annual project.
Work in the garden provides Swaak’s class of 21 as well as the garden club’s 10 members hands-on learning as they level the ground, build the structures, develop the beds, put in filler material, add the soil and create the proper mix to fill the beds.
While the leeks and garlic appear just about ready for harvest, some other plants have yet to be added to the beds, like the kale and swiss chard. Stagnated growing and crop rotation helps to maximize the space and allows for maximum production.
Lettuce, onions, tomatoes, peppers — both sweet and hot — as well as spinach, dill, sage, cilantro and parsley are also sprouting in the garden.
When Sherry Morrow started the program with $50 and help from life-skills students and students looking for community hours 10 years ago, she envisioned something that would support the community. Using a sunroom in the school as a greenhouse, students sow seeds in late February so that when it’s warm enough, they can transfer hundreds of healthy plants to the beds outdoors.
Morrow foresaw what this program has now become, providing students with some practical experience while providing fresh food to those who need it.
“That was my dream,” she says.
And every summer, the special needs education assistant tends to the garden with students who keep a schedule to ensure it remains healthy and vibrant.
The food is shared with LOFT Community Services — Bradford House, a supportive living facility, as well as seniors in need.
“It takes a lot of pressure off their food budget to have free produce,” said Swaak. “It also ensures that the residents there are getting fresh, local, healthy food.”
The next step is to create cold frames which will protect the plants as the weather cools in the fall, extending the growing season.
The prospect of working outdoors in a productive environment attracted Chloe Berdan to the high school's green industry class.
“I was originally looking into landscaping for my future but I’m not really sure what I want to do at the moment,” said the Grade 12 student while dragging a hoe across a raised vegetable bed. “I took this class … to get a grasp of working outside.
“We did the courtyard as well, we were doing brick laying and reorganizing and trying to set up a way to design the courtyard.”
Berdan, who graduates this year, still doesn’t know what her future will bring, but figures she’ll spend the next year working to save money and decide from there. Meanwhile, she says, she’s developed some skills which will undoubtedly come in handy at some point in her life.
