This text is part of the special Public School booklet
The daily life of our schools is not limited to negative or worrying news. Great initiatives are also emerging there, such as those related to local and sustainable food that 22 primary and secondary schools are carrying out across the province.
For the past two years, school projects aimed at developing the food and culinary knowledge and skills of young people have been underway in nine regions of Quebec. Selected by competition and supported by the Équiterre organization, these programs funded by the Ministère de l’Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l’Alimentation (MAPAQ) can take different forms: setting up a salad bar, snacks or baskets from regional market gardeners, culinary workshops, enhancement of the menu with local foods, mini-gardens or greenhouse crops, etc.
These projects aim above all to put young people in contact with fruits and vegetables, which they do not consume on a daily basis. As explained by Sylvie Charbonneau, coordinator of the Alliance sherbrookoise pour des jeunes en santé and who leads a project of this type in six elementary schools, including LaRocque school and Eymard school, “a survey conducted through the local found that 30% of 5-11 year olds and 65% of teenagers did not eat fruits or vegetables regularly”.
To sow the desire to eat well
However, curiosity and openness are at the rendezvous when these foods become more familiar to young people. This is what the Alliance noticed when it started the “A farmer in my neighborhood” project in the summer of 2020, which was based on the arrival of market gardeners in three Sherbrooke neighborhoods considered food deserts. “A first activity at the Jean XXIII primary school, where parents came to meet the farmers and take products at the end of the classes, convinced us to refine our program in the school environment”, says Ms.me Charbonneau.
This program now has two components. The first, “A farmer at my school”, includes the delivery every two weeks of a basket of local fruits and vegetables to the classrooms, so that teachers can use them as teaching tools. As the coordinator points out, “a bag of 70 ground cherries is delicious… but it can also be used for counting and calculating”.
The second part, “A farmer at my recess”, consists of an animation. A market gardener sets up a table displaying vegetables and fruit in the playground of a school and welcomes young people there, to answer their questions and let them taste his products. “Once the first embarrassment has passed,” says Mr.me Charbonneau, children want to know everything about cultivation methods, insects, how you can eat this or that vegetable. They love it! »
Since these two school projects are gaining in popularity each year, the Alliance for Healthy Youth has no doubt that they will spread beyond the city of Sherbrooke. Variations such as “A farmer when I come back to school”, which allowed parents and market gardeners to meet, also broaden the scope of this food education to adults. How school initiatives can have surprising social repercussions.
An engine of autonomy and confidence
Pleasant surprises, moreover, are made from one end of the educational spectrum to the other when we integrate food programs into schools. The specialized school La Passerelle is a good example. Nestled inside a youth center in Rivière-des-Prairies, this school welcomes a special clientele, namely young people aged 12 to 21 who are under youth protection or who are serving a sentence in a closed environment or open. In this gray and somewhat dilapidated building surrounded by large fences, the setting up of agricultural activities is of great benefit to the students.
“It’s crazy to see how difficult it is for them to stay seated in a class, but how they are, on the contrary, focused, valued and proud when their hands are in the ground, confirms Julie Rivest, professor of science for 22 years. Whether it’s young people with mental health problems or serious offenders, the benefits of this activity are real. This is why we proposed, with two colleagues, the establishment of the AgriLab project. »
AgriLab is a program that combines agriculture, technologies and processing. In addition to bio-intensive cultivation of a garden square outside, young people are introduced to hydroponics in class with a greenhouse and a robot cultivator (farmbot). They can then transform their production of plants, vegetables and fruits in a cooking class, and at the end of the process sell their fresh or processed products in a shop located inside the establishment. They also learn about programming by creating pots of fine herbs with a 3D printer as well as woodworking by building garden containers for their shoots.
“Thanks to AgriLab, I see young people lacking self-confidence asserting themselves, gaining autonomy and changing their perception of food. They are moreover so proud that I have already seen them put their names in place of that of fine herbs on the wooden sticks that are inserted into the plants for sale! exclaims the professor, who now dreams of adding an outdoor greenhouse and partnerships with local farmers to the project. This enthusiasm is contagious and extends to the school administration. Marjorie Blouin, director recently at La Passerelle, believes that AgriLab is “a promising project, with many civic aims. In education, of course, but also in terms of recycling, compost, reuse. It’s very inspiring. »
This special content was produced by the Special Publications team of the To have to, relating to marketing. The drafting of To have to did not take part.