By Julia Beauregard
Hometown Weekly Editor
Each and every Saturday from mid June to late October, the Walpole Farmers Market appears at Spring Brook Park in downtown Walpole. Local vendors, ranging from local farmers, bakers, and creators of all sorts host booths to display and sell their goods to visitors passing through the market.
One of the formerly featured vendors is the Walpole School Gardens. This project began in the fall of 2012 after the nurses at the local elementary schools were concerned with the amount of nutritious foods available to these young students, as many of these healthier food options were thrown away by the children buying school lunches, including both fruits and vegetables. This group of nurses wondered if the children actually learned how to grow and care for these often wasted vegetables that it might make a difference in their lives; and so the Walpole School Gardens project began!
Students from the fifth grade at Elm Street School were the first ones to give their hands at this project. After students from Norfolk Agricultural School were enlisted to help their younger peers, these fifth grade students learned how to plant lettuce seeds in containers. Then, the Aggie students brought these planted seeds back to one of the green houses on the school's campus to care for them, before eventually returning them to the Elm Street School. In the meantime, raised beds were constructed on the Elm Street School property to allow this project to prosper.
The children greatly enjoyed learning from their older peers, planting seeds, tending to their crops, and eventually harvesting. The project proved to be a success. Old Post School joined the project in the fall of 2013, Fisher School became the third garden in the winter of 2015, and Boyden School started their garden in winter of 2016.
As time has continued to pass, more vegetables, fruits, and flowers are planted in each garden by the different grade levels, bringing a variety of color, life, and flavor to these gardens.
During the summer, each school has a garden coordinator who enlists the assistance of families to keep the garden watered and tended until the crops are ready for harvest. After these crops are harvested, they are brought to the Walpole Farmers Market when school is out. These young vendors offer their crops in exchange for “seed money” to continue this project during the following school year. It is a wonderful way to teach these young children about gardening, keeping tradition, long term goals and planning, nurturing, and helping one another out.
This project has made a difference in the community and in the lives of these young gardeners.
