School Eco Club projects generally address the 3Rs, composting, and gardening; however, Canadian students are also tackling other issues, such as food supply and sustainability. Two Ontario schools are embracing issues regarding local seasonal foods, plant-based meals, and food insecurity, while also involving their communities.
Upon learning that the average meal travels 1,200 kilometres, students at Notre Dame Catholic Secondary School in Ajax were inspired by the David Suzuki Foundation to adopt the 100 mile diet. When fruits and vegetables are purchased locally, transportation emissions are drastically reduced, food is fresher, less refrigeration time is required, and local farmers are supported.
These teens became further motivated to tackle this issue after talking with Durham College professors while attending an open house at The Barrett Centre of Innovation in Sustainable Urban Agriculture. Here, they were able to harvest the vegetables. Those who have sampled freshly picked carrots or peas know the joy of rich flavour.
Inside Notre Dame’s greenhouse, small pots contain a large variety of sprouting plants including tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant, peppers, garlic, and kale. Students took extra pride in their large variety of autumn-grown vegetables that included pumpkins, squash, and beets. Their efforts continue to encourage cooking vegetable meals at school.
As the consumption of meat is a leading source of greenhouse gases, the Ajax students now prepare cooking sessions and promote vegetable/vegan recipes of vegetable lasagna, salads, vegetable soups, and zucchini bread for their school community. The project, which involves planting, caring for, and harvesting their school’s community garden as well as visiting the Barrett Centre for additional produce, also addresses nutrition and food insecurity.
Akash Anton, an Environmental Science Dual Credit Class grade 11 student, stated, “I learned the importance of gardening for future sustainability. Gardening is part of our daily life and requirements.”
Heading further north to Kapuskasing’s District High School, students host “Food for Thought – Sustainable Urban Farming,” a project supported by the Learning for a Sustainable Future and Youth Forum (LSF). This project actively engages students in learning methods of growing food by using indoor hydroponic and aquaponic technology to provide food throughout the year. The concept is derived from a living laboratory where students follow the entire process in growing food from seed to harvest. The goal is to inspire students to take this knowledge home and to begin producing veggies and fruits with their families. The investment in ZipGrow hydroponic grow systems, that most likely will be placed in the school cafeteria, will grow a living salad bar for students to learn from and eat. This hyper-local growing method to produce a living salad bar serves as a model school farm that can be adapted to all schools across Canada. Benefits of this system will relieve hunger, lessen reliance on processed food, and combat climate change.
Teachers led class discussions that focused on the amount of waste in the current food system and the unreasonable demands of customers who wanted perfect-looking produce. Other topics included the rising cost of food, the reason that fresh food is more expensive than processed food, and the unsustainable nature of meat-based diets.
Cognizant of the rising cost of groceries and impending food insecurity, especially in remote northern locations, the class partnered with Sunrise Orchards in order to create pails of fresh food they named “Healthy Options Made Easy” (HOME Pails)—a bi-weekly pail of fresh produce offered for a $30 fee. Students were also inspired to include some of their own fresh produce. Offering HOME Pails to families in communities like Kapuskasing, where heavy winter storms occur, was very much appreciated. The families that participated in the initiative commented routinely that the produce was of exceptional variety, quality, and quantity. The students who are responsible for gardening and preparing the HOME Pails take pride in offering customers the highest quality of produce. In addition, bruised fruits became desserts served to fellow students.
The success of HOME Pails allowed the school’s programs to continue the funding for ongoing maintenance of the hydroponic grow units, the purchase of seeds and substrate required for growing, and the continued building of a food forest in the school’s light court. This area currently includes a mature apple tree, several crabapple trees, immature pear trees, haskap bushes, and a strawberry patch. An off-grid, solar-powered hydroponic greenhouse is used to grow tomatoes and peppers throughout the summer. These students were engaged from the completion of the LSF workshops on climate change to the selection of plant varieties, tree planting, and harvesting.
I asked Samantha Gawron, Director of Programs, Engagement & Development, several questions on how LSF works.
Lorraine: What year did LSF begin?
Samantha: We’ve been around since 1991.
Lorraine: How many schools have you funded so far?
Samantha: We fund approximately 225 schools every year.
Lorraine: Do you get many repeats for funding from the same school?
Samantha: We do! For example, this year about 45% of our applications (so far) are from schools that received funding last year.
Lorraine: How does a school qualify?
Samantha: LSF provides funding for students and teachers to engage their school and community in climate Action Projects. This includes any action that is student-led and contributes to the sustainability of your school or community. The only limit is the students’ imaginations.
We work with grade K to 12 students in Canada and can only fund one project per school—first come, first served.
Applications are open at https://lsf-lst.ca/programs/actionproject-funding/ (or in French at https://lsf-lst.ca/fr/programmes/financement-de-projets-daction/).
Need some Action Project inspiration? Check out last year’s Empowering Youth for Climate Action Award winners!
Lorraine: Is funding available throughout the year or only at one particular time?
Samantha: Annual funding program opens in early fall (Sep/Oct) and remains open for applications until spring (Mar/Apr). Funding reports are due in late May.
Related Links
https://ourcanadaproject.ca/place/farm-to-table-2/
https://durhamcollege.ca/the-barrett-centre-of-innovation-in-sustainable-urban-agriculture
https://www.td.com/ca/en/about-td/ready-commitment/vibrant-planet/fef
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Larraine Roulston
Larraine writes children’s illustrated adventure books on composting and pollinating. To view, visit: castlecompost.com
This article is featured in Canadian Teacher Magazine’s Winter 2025 issue.
