A simple project to build small picnic tables equipped with seed trays launched two years ago continues to sprout leaps and bounds.
It has now extended into a Charlottetown entrepreneurial class and could soon become part of a project designed to meet curriculum needs in all of the province’s French first-language high schools.
Stephane Blanchard, youth development officer with RDEE P.E.I., said he is astonished at the journey his little project has taken in such a brief period.
It was in 2015 that he began the project with the Good Workers Youth Services Co-op in collaboration with the Réseau Santé en francais IPE (P.E.I. French Health Network). The original objective was to give the teenage members of the co-op an opportunity to build small picnic tables and give them as gifts to the six Francophone preschool centres of the province.
The youth were then to show the children how to plant seeds, care for the sprouts, transplant then and finally produce vegetables and herbs.
Last year, the project was expanded thanks to a contribution from Farm Credit Canada’s Expression Fund. The RDEE was able to establish small vegetable gardens in each of the preschool centres, again with help from the youth services co-op’s members.
This past winter, Blanchard was invited to deliver sessions in the Grade 10 careers class at Ecole Francois-Buote in Charlottetown.
“The students are creating a simple entrepreneurial opportunity by taking a product — essentially seeds, soil and a little planter — that produces tomato plants or other vegetable plants, to be sold in June to any interested gardener,’’ Blanchard said.
“We also explore social entrepreneurialship – a portion of the production will be given to the community and the generated profit will essentially become a social profit since the school cafeteria will be able to use some of the vegetables, herbs and other products to improve the quality of its meals.’’
The Grade 10 students then got children from the local preschool centre to participate in the class project by showing them how to plant seeds in little planters.
The French Language School Board and P.E.I. Department of Education are in discussions on integrating it into all of the province’s French schools.
There is also a Canada 150-funded project in development that would see full-fledged gardens established at all six school-community centres as learning tools for the children and as a source of fresh produce for school cafeterias.
