Barrowtown Elementary's Agriculture Program is Thriving
The Agriculture Program at Barrowtown Elementary in Abbotsford, BC, is flourishing, thanks to the President’s Choice Children’s Charity’s Power Full Kids | Grow & Cook program. The program aims to help educators incorporate food-based education into their lesson plans by providing students with tools and classroom resources.
Barrowtown Elementary has enhanced learning opportunities for students both indoors and outdoors. Three indoor garden towers have allowed students to plant seeds and regularly harvest lettuce. Seven chicks hatched in the classroom and are now thriving in their pen, providing eggs for the school. The outdoor garden space has expanded significantly, thanks to new garden boxes. Students have actively participated in planting and even sold some of the plants in a Spring plant sale!
In the words of Malcolm, a second-grader, "I am so lucky to go to a school where I get to spend the day in the garden; we never did this in my old school!"
Taylor, a fifth-grader, emphasized the importance of learning how to grow food: "My favourite part is all of it. It's my favourite part because I'm glad that our school is different from most schools; most schools don't have this. I think it's important to learn agricultural stuff because when we're older, we should know how to do this kind of thing."
The heart of the program is the students, who have actively engaged at every stage of these exciting projects. They've been enthusiastic participants in various agriculture-based field trips, with more experiences planned for the future.