Minutes+August+2010

 Westmeade Gardening Minutes August 26, 2010

People attending; Principal Stephen Breese --- Librarian – Karen McIntyre //Parents// – Amanda & Street, Ms. Denise Obriant, Ms. Tammy Keown //[|Community Food Advocates]//- [|Growing Healthy Kids Initiative] Jason Patterson, Camill Simmons William Johnson

**Discussion & Business**
 * Thanks to Amanda for helping get the letter out to lawn, garden, home and nursuries locally!
 * Jason shared the three major initiatives of Community Food Advocates. We are thankful for Jason, Camill and William all of whom helped in the garden over the summer and will help guide our activities as they have been involved with Bordeaux, Glencliff and other schools using their gardens to help create healthy kids and fight food deserts and encourage curiosity and real learning.
 * Jason has collected some herbs for our butterfly garden which he will deliver and we will plant in Sept. when cooler weather arrives…they will be tended for now in the library. Glencliff has a greenhouse and we may be able to connect with that and grow nursery stock for the garden next year. Camill suggested that one of the things which worked at Bordeaux was having a “**Salad Celebration”** on a given day when what we eat in the cafeteria would come from our garden. He also said they had success in getting parents interested and involved by having food gathered from the garden set out for parents to take home and try --- along with other schools supplies.

William suggested using a shuttlebus to transport kids and parents who might not have wheels to see the Farm in Franklin and the possibility of making an ongoing connection was discussed. Discussion about what we could plant for our early winter garden was discussed, but we would need to have the additional raised beds for the other three grade levels in order to grow enough to feed all the kids. Discussion of the possibility of even using some of the ground to plant pumpkins for next falls harvest was discussed.

One concern expressed was making sure that we stay within legal guidelines relating to having people working with the children or transporting them. Coming programs We will let you know which dates are for which programs as we confirm with out guest speakers….. Here are the dates all times will be at 1:00 p.m.
 * Sept. 11th
 * Oct. 2nd
 * Oct. 16th
 * Nov. 6th

//Healthy Kids/Healthy Snacks// Erin Timmis //Healthy seasonal, local, cooking// Martha Stamps //[|Good Food For Good People]// Shaun Siples -- maybe //Plant Exchange/Garden Shower/Metro beautification// --- helping learn to compost… **Issues to be addressed:**
 * 1) Getting teachers involved in the garden
 * 2) Finding a way for students to be involved in addition to those who earn dragon dollars…..
 * 3) Finding a way to start a garden club ---
 * 4) Finding ways to get the food into the kids --- health dept. rules
 * 5) Getting enough Compost
 * 6) Getting a parent or other volunteer to be there for the Dragon dollars garden connection…
 * 7) Planning garden activities for kids during the winter.

**Next Steps**
 * 1) **Steve** will check with Gail to be sure we are within guidelines for having the PTO sponsor our Saturday Gardening Programs.
 * 2) **Steve & Karen** will meet and set the dates for events.
 * 3) **Tammy, Denise, Amanda, & Karen** will follow up on the letter sent out by visiting the businesses which received a letter by wearing their Westmeade polo shirts and taking a copy of the letter to see if they would be willing to donate.
 * 4) **Amanda** will send Karen the file with the names of the businesses so we can divide them up to visit.
 * 5) **Karen** will contact Jay Nelson (head of MNPS food services to see how we can interface with our own cafeteria.
 * 6) **Denise** will come for Garden Helper time on Fridays at 2:00.
 * 7) Make buttons for Garden Helpers club?
 * 8) Set a date for moving the herbs from the vegetable garden area to the Butterfly Garden in Sept.
 * 9) Planting Jason’s herbs in September and also any plant material we get from our letters.
 * 10) **Karen** will send out a message about setting a day time for garden helpers who earn the right to come and work in the garden (without earning or spending dragon dollars).
 * 11) **Karen** will connect with Bordeaux to see what we can learn from their organization, and see about connecting with other metro gardens……
 * 12) **Karen** will contact Metro Beautification to see about bringing the worm bin – and composting using worms. They may be part of one of the above sessions.