Hey everyone! Our names are Tobias and Trisha, and we are students from George Brown College in the Child and Youth Care program doing our placement with Green Thumbs! This has been an exciting time for us, working with children on sustainably growing our own food.
Some of the highlights of working with youth and children on sustainably growing food is when we were able to be a part of helping students with planting garlic, pea shoots, and joining farmer’s markets.
The students were so excited to plant garlic this year! While they were digging up the holes for the garlic, a lot of them were excited to see how many worms were populating the soil that they were working with. Some would yell “Look how many worms there are!” and “The worms are pooping out the soil!”.
We even had some fun ourselves with mulching and planting the garlic and have had a few laughs together in the process! It has been an excellent time for us, too!
Another exciting thing for us as placement students with Green Thumbs has been being a part of the Garden Club! The students are always so happy and excited to be in the garden at Winchester.
They get to plant trees, scavenger hunt the various things around the garden, water the plants, and have many questions! It’s such an excellent opportunity for us to be engaged with the kids and be in nature together. We always have smiles!
At the same time, the kids were able to learn about composting bins and how compost improves soil structure, provides nutrients and removes the foul smell coming from the decomposed materials and waste.
As we grew with experience and knowledge together with Green Thumbs Growing Kids, we also participated in the Farmers Market every Tuesday. We were able to harvest the vegetables and sell them to people in the community. It was fun and nerve-wracking to explain and negotiate with people buying the vegetables. At the same time, we were amazed by farmers in the market who enjoy and make part of their living in Riverdale West park. Furthermore, we learned that the produce that did not sell was given to charity.
Overall, our experience with Green Thumbs has been rich and fulfilling, and will contribute greatly to our future careers with children and youth. We are looking forward to working with them in the upcoming semester!