School Garden for our Brooklyn Community

More local food is coming to Brooklyn with Williamsburg Prep’s Roots & Shoots new gardening project. Earlier this year, Leaders for Sustainability students started planning for a school garden that would grow all kinds of plants including cabbage, pepper, tomatoes, fennel, kale, onions, beans, broccoli, basil and parsley.  In addition to growing their food plants, the students are also growing spring flowers that they can use in a beautification project at the entrance of their school.  During the course of the school year, the garden will be used for health and science classes as well as a resource for the school's cooking club.

LFS students are growing their plants from seeds in the classroom on a reused rolling rack that has grow lights.  In April, the students will plant their seedlings and care for them throughout the rest of the school year. Teachers, students and their families have committed to sharing responsibility for caring for the vegetables over summer break.

In our community where more than half of our students qualify for free lunch, students need to be educated about affordable, healthy options to the food that they eat.  Growing the food that they eat reinforces the concept of better eating and connects them to all parts of the process.