I found this link on the Whole Foods website: Student Lunch Box Planner. Basically it has a weekly planner of nutritious and tasty meals for kids to bring to school, with a cost per serving that I think are all pretty reasonable. Then if you create the possibility of kids bringing home FREE fruits/vegs from our school garden (on a somewhat regular basis) you knock the cost down even more.

Keep money in your pocket. Feed your kids healthy meals. Throw away less garbage! (Has anyone else noticed just how much packaging each school lunch is?!?!?!)

Thought you might like to check it out!

Things happening...

We've been preparing for 6th graders to spend a week at Outdoor School in late October, and the garden has been especially useful. The curriculum for Outdoor School revolves around field studies of Soil, Water, Animals, and Plants. This week we've been studying soil, and students spent time in the garden and there was more than enough produce for each student to take home a couple things. Students also spent time establishing their own rules for the garden and greenhouse now that the entire school has access to it.

The ginger I bought in Hawaii is also growing well in our greenhouse.

In the next week, students are going to start their own compost and plant garlic in one of the empty beds.

We've been funded!!!!

It's official! Our project on DonorsChoose.org has been fully funded, and supplies are being shipped to our school within the next few weeks.

What to expect:
Once we receive supplies, we can replace any old/broken tools with new ones; begin planting in the empty beds; plant new rosebushes; continue working on a full-year harvest plan.

We really appreciate those who were giving enough to donate to our project. Last week, students from my class spent the afternoon weeding and maintaining the beds and then took a lot of produce home. It was great!