As the school year comes to a close, so does another year of edible education and food literacy programming at Growing Chefs. And what a year it has been! Despite not being able to visit elementary schools in person, our programming did not miss a beet. This past school year, we were still able to reach 87 classrooms and over 2,500 kids. Here’s a look at what we got up to!
By the end of the 2019/2020 school year, we missed seeing our learners in person. So during the summer of 2020, our team worked on developing ways we could interact directly with learners to continue to create meaningful connections between students and those working in the local food system. We may not have been able to bring chefs and farmers into school classrooms, but we found ways to connect them to classrooms digitally, and brought the classroom to our local food systems for a highly interactive, virtual behind-the-scenes look.
With pre-recorded on-site videos, live interactive activities, printable worksheets, and a live Q&A with local food experts our new Virtual Field Trips allowed students to explore their local food system in a completely new way. Each unique session provided students with the opportunity to interact with local food producers, chefs, and other food experts, see unique locations related to our food systems, and encourage them to think critically about these systems all while staying in the comfort and safety of their classroom or their home.
Engaging 28 classrooms in this new program we visited:
Fresh Roots Farm to showcase the full growth cycle of a plant and learn about urban agriculture on a schoolyard farm, and
Cheakamus Centre near Squamish, to learn from Chef Wade and Cultural Educator Aura about the science behind maple syrup making and to take a look at maple trees from an Indigenous perspective.
At the end of the school year, we also began to pilot a virtual field trip to the Sandown Centre for Regenerative Agriculture, exploring natural connections and the importance of these connections to farming and food production.
"The programming was thoughtful, engaging, and informative. The presenters were equipped with a wealth of knowledge and professional experience. They even brought along physical items that were used to share and present concepts over Zoom. My students found this useful for understanding from afar. Importantly, we were given the opportunity to work, not only with Chef Wade from the Cheakamus Centre, but also Indigenous knowledge keeper Aura, who provided historical and traditional stories and information to ground us in the land and cultural traditions of the area. This was very special. I will absolutely be booking with Growing Chefs again in the future!"
- Whitney Wiliams, Grade 2 teacher at South Island Distance Education School, Vancouver Island
In the fall, Growing Chefs piloted a program that would allow chefs and food experts to directly connect with kids in the classroom, even if they couldn’t join the classrooms in person this year. Through our digital pen-pal program we called Vegeta-pals, 12 classrooms across the province were paired with food experts and chefs to engage one another in exploring our food systems. Vegeta-pals exchanged video messages, artwork, and letters, engaged in learning activities, and some even had live interactive video chats continuing to build connections with kids and where their food comes from.
“We are having a great time with Chef Patrick and Mich from the Vegeta-pal program. Our students are LOVING IT. Our class is so jazzed to be part of the Growing Chefs program, in this virtual sense. It is amazing, how creative we are getting during these times. Our class is full of energy, enthusiasm and joy.”
- Kimberly Baker, Grade 3/4 teacher at Maywood Community School, Burnaby
This spring, Growing Chefs provided 47 classrooms with the materials needed to get growing in the classroom. We provided planters, seeds from our friends at West Coast Seeds, soil, a classroom gardening resource guide developed by Growing Chefs with our friends from the Vancouver Master Gardeners. With online support for teachers, we were able to continue getting students’ hands in the soil and engage kids in the concept of how food grows.
In the Greater Victoria area, these classroom gardens extended beyond the walls of the school through our new Seedlings for Sandown program. 12 Victoria classrooms grew carefully selected seed varieties from Metchosin Farm and nurtured seedlings that would later be transplanted into a special area at the Sandown Centre for Regenerative Agriculture. Over 250 corn and sunflower seedlings were delivered to Sandown’s new 83-acre farm site where students from Parkland Secondary, visited the farm to help transplant the seedlings while learning about regenerative agriculture from Sandown’s Farmpreneurs.
Our corn seeds started to sprout this week ..... yeah! The students are very excited and eagerly visit them first thing every morning! We talk to our plants and give them kindness to make them grow fast and healthy!
- Jeanette De Biase, Grade 1 teacher at Ecole Quadra Elementary
With many families at home and looking for things to do during Spring Break this year, Growing Chefs put together a series of fun, interactive online experiences for elementary school-aged kids. These events provided kids and their families the opportunity to explore their local food system, meet local food champions and continue their learning of growing and cooking healthy food.
From storytime with celebrity Chef Bruno Feldeisen, to garden planning tips with the Vancouver Master Gardeners, to a choose-your-own-adventure-style cooking class with Chef Linda Olson from Truffle Fine Foods and more! The six-event series engaged all ages from families across the province providing something for everyone.
Reaching an entirely new audience of learners this year, we connected with home learning and distance education groups to provide students, and families, with curated food literacy learning opportunities. Growing Chefs’ Virtual Home Learning Program connected with over 300 students from across Canada who were learning from home, in school, or participating in a hybrid program.
Students in our virtual home learning program attended live virtual field trips and interacted with weekly themed lessons which included videos, worksheets, recipes, and hands-on food literacy activities to do at home. Students learned about growing food, food systems, urban agriculture, healthy eating, how to read and create their own recipes as well as other culinary skills, and more.
“We have had lots of learning and fun, such as our online field trip and learning about the six parts of a plant (stem, roots, leaves, seeds, fruits, and the flowers). Some other things we learned are planting in an urban environment is called Urban Agriculture. Urban Agriculture is important because we can’t always rely on imported food. A good way to help is to plant seeds on your balcony backyard, or somewhere else.”
- Brendan, age 10
While our programming this year has perhaps looked a little different, our goals have remained the same. We continue to adapt and teach kids about healthy food and healthy food systems through connecting them with food experts and engaging them in hands-on interactive learning thanks to the help of our supporters and community partners. We are excited to integrate this new programming with our regular Classroom Gardening and Cooking Program next year and beyond. We look forward to enriching and deepening the learning and experiences Growing Chefs brings to classrooms and families.
We are incredibly grateful to all those who helped us to shift our programming and create new, innovative ways to continue teaching kids and families about healthy food and healthy food systems from a distance. If you are looking for ways to get involved, check out the volunteer and donate pages of our website!