Exciting Updates at Mt. Washington Elementary School
Thank you to Lisa Kelemen and Lee Dix for providing me with these exciting updates:
Mount Washington Elementary school (MWES) is working on a plan to add a vegetable garden to the school. They are currently in the planning stages. MWES staff and parent representatives have met with a schoolyard planner from Irvine Nature Center to walk the school grounds and get ideas. One of the problems the school is currently trying to address is an issue with silt build-up under the playground that comes from run-off from South Road and Lochlea. The school is also working with the Jones Falls Watershed Association to address this problem. They are making plans to install rain gardens and more indigenous plantings while also providing learning opportunities. MWES staff, students and parent volunteers are working towards applying for “green status”. So, being eco-friendly when tackling problems such as run-off is key!
Recently, Whole Foods Market approached the school as well as some parents in Mt. Washington to establish a partnership between the school and the the local store. Whole Foods wants to teach children about the benefits of eating healthy, so they’ve been teaching cooking classes in the school and bringing in good foods for the kids to sample and cook with. Whole Foods and Mt. Washington parents also discussed other things the school could do to help establish healthy eating habits in children. The store offered us a 5% day to raise money to build and maintain a vegetable garden. (See prior post about the January 12th Whole Foods shopping day to benefit these projects).
Whole Foods will be providing the school with some technical support and supplies to get the garden built. They will also be sending their team members to the garden periodically to help care for it. Parents at the school are getting together a committee of devoted parents and community members to build the garden, care for it, harvest and then teach the students how to cook and eat the vegetables. This garden, as well as our partnership with Whole Foods, is something that will help us move towards becoming a green school. The hope is to have each grade at the school become involved in an age-appropriate way.
When the representatives met with the schoolyard planner from Irvine, they discussed some potential sites for a garden. An exact location hasn’t been chosen yet. However, they are toying with the idea of “moveable gardens”. One company who creates these is Earthbox. With this concept, the gardens can be wheeled out of the way for things like kickball, moved them to the sunniest areas on the property, and then wheel them right into the classroom. Kids could really learn a lot about science with this option (like what do plants do to get the most sunlight?) and they require a lot less water and maintenance.
Last, the school is thinking about composting in the cafeteria and rain barrels… but these details are still in consideration and planning.
All of these possibilities sound very exciting as ways to provide life long lessons in nutrition, science and sustainability to our children.
Loading ...
Very exciting. The process of figuring out the best things to do is part of the learning experience.
I just returned from a wonderful round-the-world-trip. All through southeast Asia I ate everything I wanted, it was delicious, and I lost weight — no effort. I was healthy and had no illness. As soon as I returned to a Western diet, which in my case is a very healthy one with lots of fruit and vegetables, I began to gain the weight back. Interesting!