Charlottetown Rural High School, Charlottetown, PE
Grant term, 2024-2025
Our student body consists of approximately 1200 students who live in the rural areas surrounding Charlottetown, PEI and span grades 10-12. An increasingly large proportion of our population Agriculture is one of the largest industries on PEI, with potatoes being our main export. Other common agricultural commodities include soybeans, grain crops, corn and oilseeds. Prince Edward Island is located in plant hardiness zones 5 and 6 which allows us to grow a variety of annual cash crops such as carrots, cucumbers, peas, tomatoes, and peppers.
This grant has allowed our school to continue to provide programming to students that emphasizes farm to table food production and celebrates foods that are culturally significant to our diverse population. Our culinary class was able to use herbs and tomatoes grown in our greenhouse to make salsa to accompany a Mexican cuisine meal and season components of other culturally diverse meals. Our agriscience classes were able to select and grow their own plant that would be appropriate for our climatic region. They cared for them all semester and either took them home or left them to be planted in our raised beds to harvest in the fall.
One student reported that “being able to choose and grow my own plant helped me to better understand where my food comes from and all of the work that farmers put into growing it!”. This was supplemented by visits to local farms to learn about local businesses and agricultural practices.
This grant also allowed us to continue improving our outdoor garden by lining more of the paths with landscape cloth and woodchips to suppress weeds and increase accessibility of the area for those with motor impairments. We have also been able to maintain our raised beds by adding new compost and top soil. Our Inclusive Education department staff and students have been instrumental in this maintenance and worked to transplant the vegetables started in the greenhouse by our agriscience and leadership classes. This will allow us to continue to grow produce for our annual Healthy Harvest event in the fall where we provide students in our Inclusive Education and culinary programs with the opportunity to harvest locally grown produce and use it to make different dishes to provide healthy lunch options for other students.
We are very thankful for Farm to Cafeteria Canada for funding this grant opportunity and allowing us to continue investing in food education.
