Grades 4 and 5 students from Sudbury’s École St-Denis got a first-hand lesson in ecology at the Delki Dozzi Community Food Forest just before the school year ended last week. “I like how we are in nature, smelling it,” said student Jax Lesa, who was searching for black currants. “We’re learning that they actually have feelings. To understand that they’re pretty much as important as we are.” The hands-on field trip was part of a free, environmental agriculture program run by the local non-profit Sudbury Shared Harvest. Tailored for students in grades 1-9, the program aims to bridge the gap between textbook lessons and real-world nature. “We talked about the different layers in the forest, from the roots to the trees,” said École St-Denis teacher Renee Lachance-Chartrand. “Then they did some exploration on a plant that they were assigned to see if they could find it and identify it.” Lachance-Chartrand said students have been enjoying the program. “I don’t think we realize what we have growing around us besides the basic clover and general berries,” she said. “So they really enjoyed it. And I spend a lot of time discussing the connections with the land. So, we’ve just talked about that all year. So now they’re actually putting some of their knowledge into action.” Scaling up the program A recent $217,700 grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation will allow the non-profit to scale up in the next three years. “This grant really enables us to visit many more students,” said Camille Tremblay Beaulieu, co-executive director and education coordinator with Sudbury Shared Harvest. “Where we were previously doing hundreds of visits, now we can do thousands of visits.” Tremblay Beaulieu said the program was implemented more than a year ago and has seen participation from roughly 2,000 students. “It’s an ecological way to garden and for students to get involved in gardening,” she said. “For the students, it’s just nice for them to learn a bit about ecosystems in a way that also involves agriculture, basically. And this whole theory of how to grow food.” Sudbury MPP Jamie West was in attendance to see students enjoying the program. “You can see it first-hand with the kids how excited they are,” West said. “Anytime learning is fun, it sticks more with you.” Student Ellie Bradley successfully found the raspberry plant she was searching for. “I like that we get to see different plants and see how the bees like the pollen,” she said. “Most people don’t think that nature is important. So I feel like if they get out and see nature, they think that it’s like a part of our world to protect.” While the program was initially designed with a French focus, Sudbury Shared Harvest is already working on an English version of the curriculum, which they plan to roll out within the next year.
