Humberview Secondary School students prepare community garden

Students using grant funding to improve garden

By ZACHARY ROMAN

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Local students are hard at work gardening. 

On May 6, Grade 11 Environmental Science and French Immersion Anthropology students from Humberview Secondary School prepared the school's community garden for another year of growing vegetables. 

Public schools across Caledon have been building vegetable gardens thanks to an initiative that was started by Caledon's Peel District School Board trustee, Stan Cameron.

The gardens have produced hundreds of pounds of food that have been donated to The Exchange, Caledon's home for food support for those in need. 

Humberview has a particularly large and successful garden, and this resulted in the school receiving a grant for $3,975 to put towards improving their garden even further. 

The grant is from the Whole Kids Foundation, which is a U.S.-based non-profit dedicated to improving children's health and wellness through their nutrition.

Humberview's Curricular Head of Science, Andrew Hagen, had his Grade 11 environmental science students research and create detailed garden plans and proposals about how the grant should be used. He then had students present their plans and proposals.

As a result of that project and the grant, important items for the garden were identified, ordered and delivered. All that was left was for work to begin. 

Ward 3 Councillor Doug Maskell, who used to be a guidance counsellor at Humberview, came out for the May 6 garden preparation day to show support to the students — and grill up some lunch. 

“The students worked hard and lots of work was completed as many hands make light work,” said Maskell in an email to the Citizen. “The students enjoyed the opportunity to spend the day out in the spring sun while giving back to the community… there is still more work to do and we are excited to see the fruits of this labour as we move through the seasons.”