On Thursday 10/17, the Upper School Garden Club organized a field trip to the Center for Food Action Garden in Englewood, NJ. This garden, maintained by a group of volunteers, many of them D-E students who help out over the summer, provides fresh, organic produce to the Center for Food Action pantry, which in turn distributes it to families facing food insecurity. This field trip, attended by ten US students as well as one brave sixth grader, represents the latest installment in a long-standing relationship between the School and the Garden Club and is the third and final service learning trip to the CFA facilitated by the club this calendar year.
Although the students were only in the Garden for an hour and a half, they proved incredibly productive, planting five beds with several varieties of garlic. The garlic cloves will stay in the ground through the winter, and in the spring they will finally sprout, with many producing harvestable bulbs by the middle of the summer. The group proceeded to water, fertilize, and mulch all the freshly planted beds, making them fully ready for winter. Not letting any time go to waste, the assiduous volunteers used the final minutes of the trip to remove diseased squash plants to make way for future plantings. Those who were unable to go on this trip should look forward to the Garden Work Party in the school garden on Sunday, November 17. This event qualifies for up to four on-campus community service hours, and also features some delicious food!
