Dave DeMille
| Reporter assisted by AI
Students at the Burke-Memorial Elementary School in Medway capped months of gardening with a Harvest Day celebration on Tuesday, Nov. 18, pulling kale, radishes and other crops they grew to stock a farmstand for families, according to a community announcement.
The project, a collaboration with the Medway Community Farm, began in September when students planted seeds in raised garden beds behind the school, according to the announcement.
Sixteen classes each cared for a garden bed, regularly watering and weeding as the vegetables grew through the fall. This year’s harvest included kale, radishes, spinach, lettuce, kohlrabi, napa cabbage, beets, scallions and chard.
Students helped run a farm stand
On Harvest Day, classes visited the garden in pairs to pull and clean their crops with the help of gardeners from Medway Community Farm, according to the announcement. Students then helped run a small farmstand for families to purchase the produce. Most vegetables sold quickly, with remaining items donated to local food pantries.
Burke-Memorial Elementary School and Medway Community Farm have collaborated for more than 15 years to offer agriculture-based learning experiences for students, according to the announcement. Fourth graders will visit the farm later this school year as part of the same farm-to-table learning program.
“This yearly project gives our students a real sense of what it takes to grow food from the ground up,” Principal John Kelley said in a statement. “Harvest Day is exciting for them because they see the payoff for their work and get to share it with their families.”
This story was created by Dave DeMille, ddemille@gannett.com, with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Journalists were involved in every step of the information gathering, review, editing and publishing process. Learn more at cm.usatoday.com/ethical-conduct.
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