Every school in SD46 has a well established school garden or is in the process of building or expanding their gardens. Gardens have been built and supported for many years in our District, usually through the efforts of PAC’s, teacher champions, and motivated community members – Greg Russell for example, contributed much to the building of School gardens prior to 2011.
Garden development mostly had an individual school focus, and were built by parents/teachers and volunteers (and in a few instances SD46 personnel) with the help of community donations of materials.
The landscape began to change after a 2014 community consultation involving SD46, the Regional District, RCCS and the larger community began exploring the idea of a shared community garden space beside RC Elementary.
In 2016, due their management of larger garden projects at their schools, Sechelt and RC Community Schools signed Licenses to Occupy with the School District and mobilized significant funding and community contributions to realize their projects.
In 2018 we invited the Provincial manager of Farm to School BC for a school garden tour since a number of grants had been awarded to SD46 schools. He was impressed at the level of infrastructure and agreed to work with us to create a Sunshine Coast Farm to School Pilot Hub.
In 2021, through a SCF Intentional grant and PHABC matching funds the Advisory Committee successfully created a hub, and hired a pilot Animator to strengthen connections between schools and local growers, build capacity through professional development for Educators, and to help create and embed a culture of growing and food literacy in our schools (focused on DBES and RCES).
Scale up grants in 2022, and 2024 have allowed us to continue this work which has provided increased opportunities for other schools to access F2S grants and supports.
Community School involvement, with key volunteers and the Farm to School BC partnership have greatly increased garden infrastructure and capacity – to date, 8 schools have benefitted from 14 F2S grants, 143 participants attended 21 Pro D opportunities, and 139 individuals have participated in the community round tables, garden conversations, and gatherings we have hosted, resulting in a growing network of support and collaboration across our communities and schools.
We now have 2 teachers on the Advisory Committee, and through their efforts an Environmental Education LSA with a school garden focus has been formed, with 18 educators participating through three meetings so far this year. Momentum is growing, and our garden classrooms are something to be proud of.
