Gloucester FoodCorps @gloucesterfoodcorps-blog - Tumblr Blog

We've been very lucky to have a lot of support from families in the Gloucester community this summer. Erin, Grace, and I don't live in Gloucester so we can't make it up there as often as we'd like to tend the gardens. There is definitely some separation anxiety involved in maintaining a long-distance relationship with a garden that you've built and nurtured from the ground up (with lots and lots of help from the school community). However, these pictures from families at Vets' show that our gardens are in good hands.

A whole year of FoodCorps service has happened-- my how time flies! Here are some photographs from my last 2 weeks serving at The Open Door food pantry, working with Summer Lunch students and managing their kitchen Garden!

It has been amazing!

For Gloucester FoodCorps, this is Grace Cherubino, signing off.

Happy Gardening, Educating and Eating!

July is almost to an end, and my Garden is heading to another transition; Tomatoes are Green and getting plumper-- The second round of Beets and Carrots have been harvested, and the Summer Squash are inching out from under their protective leaves. Today, July 26th, it is going to rain. The fog is rolling in off of the ocean. You can smell the sea in the warm, wet air.

This Garden, tucked behind the parking lot and building of The Open Door food pantry, is a tiny oasis. I see it in the eyes of the Summer Lunch kids who walk from the surrounding neighborhoods to get free, healthy food, and the volunteers who work in the garden for me, in exchange for Time Bank dollars or a percentage of the harvest. They all come, as do I, into this tiny world, to gain a connection to their Place. To create a sense of belonging...

And, today, it is going to rain... today this world is a rainforest.

Gloucester, the rainforest.

-Grace

Box-o-Herbs from The Open Door Garden.

July 17

Volunteer Nasturtium Growing in the Kale and Chard bed!

Yum, Yum, edible flowers!

What a lovely gift- Thank you Mother Earth!

Yesterday at Beeman's Field Day students turned what already was a beautiful shed into a work of art. Take a look at our progress throughout the day, and the finished product! Every kid and a few teachers made their mark on what we hope will be part of the school for years. Hand prints are color coded by grade to make it easier for future alumni to find their's.

#shed #kids' art work #school garden #foodcorps #citysprouts

In a Rainy June Week...

~

We Painted Rock Signs and Faces for the School Garden.

~

-Grace Cherubino

A new home for the worms!

A brave second grade class at Beeman dug right into the compost on Friday. They wanted to make sure it would make a good home for the worms they'd been raising in their classroom. After a thorough evaluation they released their class pets. Now while the students take a break for the summer, their worms will be hard at work creating beautiful rich soil for the school garden!

Last week Beeman and Veterans' both celebrated our last cafeteria event of the school year: Rainbow Ranger Day. Kids tasted a rainbow of fruits and veggies including green peas, purple grapes, red cherry tomatoes, and orangey-yellow peaches. Back in their classrooms some students got to examine the flavors and textures of their foods. They used stickers to mark which they thought were the crunchiest, the sweetest, the softest, and the tastiest on a chart. Teachers are using the charts to practice all kinds of calculations ranging from subtraction to fractions. Who knew math could taste so good?

Flower-Week in After School with Mandala flower coloring and talk of Pollination!

Happy Springtime!

-Grace

As promised: Plant-Dye painting activity!

I made the Dyes by chopping up Beets (for the magenta/ pink), Cabbage (for the Blue/grey), and Onion skins and Turmeric root (for the yellow/gold), and Simmering them in pots of water for 48 hours.

Done.

How awesome is that?

My students also LOVED it-- The paints/dyes also smelled like food!

-Grace

Last week's Plant Part theme for after school was ROOTS! We did Potato Prints AND Plant-Dye Painting (with Beets, Turmeric, Onions and Cabbage!) What fun it is to make art out of food!!

The Photos above are from Potato Printing (cutting shapes into the spuds and transferring the shape with paint onto paper!)

More photos to come of Plant-Dye Painting!

Happy Spring!

-Grace Cherubino

#foodcorps

Radishes!! Beautiful Easter Egg and Cherry Belle radishes made up Beeman's first harvest of the season. The first graders who planted them practiced writing creative adjectives to describe how their crop tasted. They tried their radishes raw, and stir-fried. Delicious!!

#radish #foodcorps #kids gardening #citysprouts #taste test

An elementary schooler writes a blog about school lunch!

It's planting time! Slowly but surely we've been getting seeds in the ground. Today Vets, Beeman, Plum Cove, and East Gloucester got a delivery of seedlings to plant as well. We'll be planting kale, broccoli, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, basil, and more! We're hoping this time spring is really here to stay.

#plant #garden #scallion #school garden #foodcorps #thefoodproject #citysprouts #gloucester

The Gloucester Daily Times stopped by to snap some pictures of first graders planting golden beet seeds.

See the rest here.

#FoodCorps #gardening #kids

This week in after school, our Plant Part theme is: Leaf!

Yesterday at Veteran's, we walked around the school identifying leaves, and then went inside to draw them!

Peas,

Grace

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