Newfield
The past year has been extremely productive for Growing Hope Together. In early March, we had a garden planning meeting with thirtyfive third graders in the Newfield Elementary School. Students drew pictures of their ideal garden. Pictures included everything from carrots to apple trees. Following the meeting, Sue Shults, Jon Armstrong and Laura Smith sat down with the pictures to try to incorporate as many features as possible into the garden.
Although the garden was originally envisioned as a vegetable garden, the students made it clear that they wanted flowers as well. The design for the garden was developed so that 2-3 students would have ownership over a 2X3 foot plot. The border for the whole garden was reserved for a variety of flowers.
In late April, students started seedlings for a variety of herbs, flowers and vegetables. With the help of Erin Smith and Tina Winstead, students placed their seeds in tiny peet pots. The seedlings were set in the large windows in the third grade classroom. Teachers Shults and Armstrong reported students checking on the plants each morning excited to see new growth. In early May, ground was broken next to the historical Kellogg's Schoolhouse, thanks to Scott Smith and hisbeautifully restored 1957 Farmall tractor; also thanks to Bill Miller of Spencer for lending his tiller. Shortly thereafter, the fence was erected and a group of college students gathered to lay out the brickwork, dividers and mulch pathways. Later in the month, the third graders proudly planted their new seedlings in the garden plots. Thanks to the dedication of Erin Smith, Linda Poppleton and volunteers, the garden began to flourish despite several early setbacks. The abundance of rain during the summer months helped to produce hundreds of pounds of fresh vegetables which were donated to the Newfield Food Bank. The border of flowers added by the students were invaluable to a successful garden. The flowers aided in plant pollination and prevented the majority of destruction by insects and other pests.
During the summer months, Erin and Linda maintained the garden, harvested vegetables for the Newfield Food Bank and brought student groups into the garden, which was dedicated to Herb & Florence Emery and renamed the “Emery Memorial Kids Garden”. We’d like to thank those few anonymous, good hearted community members who stopped by occasionally to weed. At Newfield Old Home Days, in September, many Newfielders toured the garden for the first time and we received glowing compliments. In addition, we offered baskets for sale.
In early October, the new group of third graders were introduced to the project through a vegetable scavenger hunt. Prior to the activity, few children could identify the vegetables in the garden. Although they knew what a carrot looked like in the store, they couldn't find this underground vegetable in the garden. Students were able to take trophy vegetables from the garden and share Following the activity, students were offered a small portion of “Kale Fritata”. All 39 children in the class were willing to sample the vegetable and egg dish, while 35 students ate the entire serving! Pretty amazing for a dark green leafy vegetable!
As we plan for the upcoming year, we hope to start seedlings earlier in donated greenhouse space, which has been offered by several individuals. In addition, we hope to bring in more summer groups to learn about gardening and food, and get some help with harvesting for the Newfield Food Bank.
We would like to thank the United Way Youth Philanthropy Grant program for the startup funding and William Hurley, Newfield’s school superintendent, for encouraging us and supporting the project throughout this first year.