Why is sustainability important for Maine?  Sustainability means producing and satisfying our needs locally.  Instead of buying our school lettuce from California,  we grow it ourselves.  We no longer buy all of our seeds from large companies from far away, the students are learning how to grow, save and market their own seed in partnership with local seed companies and the Maine Cooperative Extention.  Students are saving money spent on soil amendments by gathering and compost seaweed from our coast, collecting leave mulch from the municipallity, and have a student-run school compost program that returns our cafeteria food waste to enrich our soil.

Project Purpose
    Our program uses the theme of school gardening, composting and seed-saving to introduce a curricular framework and projects that integrate sustainability throughout the middle school curriculum. Young people learn the practical skills to manage an ecological garden and composting program, how compost builds living soil, how to save seeds from open pollinated food crops, and practical business skills to market their organic vegetables. Young people discover how gardening can be a compelling way to make a real difference in their homes, schools and communities.

Expected Results 
    Foodwaste Diversion - The school composting program is anticipated to divert much of the school cafeteria foodwaste from the dumpster to the school garden.

Enhanced Soil Fertility and Disease-Suppression
    Four years ago the garden plot was compacted school playground turf with low organic matter and almost no earthworms. Today it is tilled and producing food, however due to a stressed soil biology, there was a high incidence of early blight in tomatoes and poor tilth. The school purchased compost as an outside input at wholesale cost.  We have saved money by creating our own compost and earthworm castings.  Further organic matter has been gotten through batering (our labor and vegtables) with local farms.
    As the organic matter in the soil is increased as a result of the foodwaste, the increased complexity of beneficial soil organisms are anticipated to enhance the soils natural biocontrol against pathogens.  The finished compost will be measured for: germination rate of wheat, effect on beneficial soil biota, and seedling and crop vigor.

On-Site Organic Food Production and Improved Student Nutrition
    Typical school lunches offer wilty white lettuce shipped some 3000 miles from California, heavily cooked spiced meats and vegetables and surplus dairy products. Few school lunches are supplied fresh from local farmers. Fewer are supplied in any proportion by the work of the students own hands. When we began, many of the students in our class professed to not like to eat vegetables. Today those students run to the garden and in moments are munching fresh vegetables with vivid delight.

Curricular Integration  
    The primary obstacle to integrating gardening into the educational curriculum is the concern that gardening lacks academic value. Historically, elementary school curricula are concerned with the education of the whole child. However in middle and high school curricula are often more structured and performance-based than primary schools. A highly-structured curriculum means less flexibility in lesson plans and difficulty in justifying practical gardening projects. Providing teacher support to integrate gardening with the middle school Maine Learning Results is our objective.

Long-Term Impact
    Young People Empowered to Grow their own Food and likely to develop Livelihoods that foster Local Food Systems.
School gardens introduce a systemic solution to local food security and organic waste problems, and create a compelling opportunity for young people to solve real problems on a scale of meaning in their expanding world. Young people can feel overwhelmed by the vast complexity of the multi-national food system.