This summer we’re experimenting with something new! For about 35 years the Hindman Settlement School has been providing education support for students in our county schools with Dyslexia and other learning challenges. As a part of that program, we also run a summer school for students with Dyslexia, for a total of five weeks at the beginning of the summer. We’ve been making an effort to incorporate food into more aspects of our work here at the Settlement, and one of the ways we’re doing this is by incorporating weekly gardening lessons for our students – elementary age all the way through high school.

 

13417446_10154313813938336_6008074224659234634_nWe’ve been able to plant sweet potatoes together, learn about the different parts of plants and what we can eat from them, learn what it means to grow and plan sustainably, taste different and new vegetables, and talk about the roles of things like pollinators and insects and the ways they impact our gardens!

 

We hope to continue with this education and are looking at partnerships for building Farm-to-School programming in our county schools in a more widespread way. We’re excited to say that our new Americorps VISTA who will join our team in August has experience and connections with farm to school models and is excited to help us reach more students! We’ve always been focused on education here at the Settlement, and while we plan to continue supporting our locDSC_26082al family growers we also realize that our expertise and role in the community is one of working with young students – and it’s the perfect age to excite anyone about food and plants!

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading! Happy July,


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