If you know a student in Chimacum Creek Primary or Chimacum Elementary School, you know how popular the school garden program is. Each student attends garden classes each week and this outdoor education offers a great opportunity to combine academic standards with life-long lessons about nutrition, plant life cycles, and caring for the earth.

Last month CES held the second annual Read & Feed, which piggybacks on the PTA-sponsored Read-a-Thon, a celebration of literacy and fundraiser for experiential education. Students at each grade level prepared a lunch course from school garden grown ingredients and invited family members to a beautiful meal. 450 people ate soup, rolls, salad, cookies, and herbal tea grown and prepared by 2-6 graders.

The garden team has also begun a compost and cafeteria food waste diversion program. In partnership with Return to Earth Compost, CES has launched a program to recycle the nutrients in cafeteria food waste. Students studied soil fertility, nutrient cycling, and composting; they then learned to separate organic waste from trash and launched a lunch-time compost program in their cafeteria. Two weeks in, over 1000 pounds of waste have been composted rather than sent to the landfill! The finished nutrient-rich compost will return to CES to nourish the gardens because growing food requires excellent fertilizer!