BUGS Bounty: Student Farm Stand and Community Market

BUGS is supporting its 6th grade class to launch a Student Farm Stand and Community Market. This end-of-semester project is designed to increase awareness about food justice, support locally sourced foods, and encourage gardening both within the BUGS community and across the schools (2 Pre-K programs and a public middle school) that also share our building. During the spring semester students will also engage in related community service projects such as finding new uses for unwanted books, sharing original writings about the market and the impact of herbs and spices on different cultures with Pre-K students, and creating functional art projects for the market made out of recycled goods.

The Student Farm Stand and Community Market will be designed and operated by our students. It will be open to the public on five days in May and June. The project is in collaboration with Slow Food and in partnership with a local farmer with the NYC GreenMarket in Prospect Park. Our goal is to increase community awareness of social, economic, and environmental sustainability and encourage more environmentally friendly actions and behavior. This project will also increase students’ collaborative skills and business, innovation and implementation acumen.

BUGS is asking for donations to help support the materials necessary to make the BUGS Bounty: Student Farm Stand and Community Market as successful as possible and to become an ongoing tradition at the school. Thanks to a generous match from IOBY your donation is matched dollar for dollar up to $5,000!

The BUGS Bounty: Student Farm Stand and Community Market will be located in the BUGS garden outside the school at 500 19th Street. It is a great location for school-bound foot traffic and is conveniently located by a bus stop. The Farm Stand and Market will be held on five days in April and May.

• In April and May, students plant seeds and create flats and containers for the plants. 
• In math class, they work on a business plan for the market –  looking at costs of goods, revenue, and expenses. 
• In reading and writing classes, they design ‘zines that can be sold at the market. 
• After collecting unwanted books, students write reviews and read stories to our partner Pre-K, and then potentially sold at the market. 
• As crops begin to grow, students harvest food for the Farm Stand and create art projects from recycled materials.
• Students will create materials to promote the Farm Stand and Market to the community and families who attend schools at 500 19th Street.
• Students run the stand with adult supervision, and reflect on lessons learned (procedures, roles, sales) after each day of the market, to apply those lessons when planning the next one.  

BUGS offers middle school students from across Brooklyn a hands-on interdisciplinary education with a focus on real-world problem-solving and exploration of environmental, social, and economic sustainability that prepares students to achieve excellence in high school and become engaged global citizens. Each year the students study an essential question that is examined across the content areas and participate in Service Learning Projects that illuminate a key aspect of the essential question and include a hands-on component as well as group and individual work.

This semester our 6th graders are examining the essential question: What is food justice? Their sustainability project is a Collaborative Farm Stand and Community Market.

We are especially excited about this project because it is student-centered and will help us educate and inspire our community in and outside our school building to consider how we can all contribute to a more socially just and sustainable world. Curriculum in all BUGS classes will wrap around these themes and real-world skills.

BUGS students will be designing and launching this market kale-soup-to-nuts, taking real-world risks and sharing BUGS Bounty!

You can find more information at: www.BUGSbrooklyn.org