Parkview Elementary School students have been coming home with green thumbs.
That’s because the Sicamous school has launched its new garden club.
According to Parkview’s principal, Carla Schneider, efforts to put the school’s new garden boxes in place were all staff and volunteer driven.
Lara Matthews, Grade 6 teacher at Parkview, said fellow staff Nicole Krull and Katie Dawson spearheaded the idea. Krull is the school’s Indigenous education worker and Dawson is a Kindergarten and Grade 1 teacher.
Matthews said the school wants students to participate in and learn about healthy eating and where their fruits and vegetables come from.
Six garden boxes were installed outside the school. The boxes will be shared among all the classes at the school and one of them will be used to grow plants used historically by Indigenous peoples.
Since the school year is almost over and it’s a bit late for planting, students have been helping to get the garden boxes ready for next year by filling them with soil, mulch and peat moss.
Matthews said Parkview received grants to help fund the project, as well as donations of materials and labour. The grants received were the Farm to School grant and the Indigenous Learning Healthy Foods grant.
Geoffrey Kroeker of Lateral Builders built the boxes with the help of his daughters, Lilian and Ruby.
Valleyview Ranch donated mulch, Black Diamond Soil Services donated peat moss and the Foster family donated soil.
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@roman_reportszachary.roman@saobserver.net
