Friendship Gardens wants our produce!

Our gardens need TLC this summer

June 25, 2013 – The Catawba River District schoolyard garden program has found a new partner to help us expand the usefulness of our schoolyard gardens' produce. The partner is Friendship Gardens, led by Henry Owens. 
Over 60 community and schoolyard gardens belong to Friendship Gardens, and most donate some of their produce to help another important program, Friendship Trays. Originally called Meals on Wheels, Friendship Trays prepares and delivers more than 750 meals a day to shut-ins and the elderly.

Our gardens need summertime help. How about you?

Last week I toured our gardens at Mountain Island Elementary, Whitewater Middle and Whitewater Academy with Sarah, a Friendship Gardens Volunteer from Davidson College.  We harvested tomatoes, radishes, beans, lettuce, cucumbers, zucchini. The next day, I took what we harvested down to the Culinary School of Charlotte.

Culinary School uses our produce 

The magic chefs at Culinary School of Charlotte are another important part of the Friendship Trays operation. They assess all the fruits and vegetables coming in from Friendship Gardens and use these fresh foods in the hundreds of meals they prepare each day for individuals and families in our area who need quality meals.
Volunteers pick up the prepared meals and deliver them to the designated families in our area.  This is the Friendship Trays component.
To find out more about Henry and Friendship Gardens visit www.friendship-gardens.org

Gardens help our students grow STEM skills

Catawba River District launched schoolyard gardens at the three schools as a way to help our students strengthen their science, technology, engineering and math skills while learning more about healthy diets and gardening.
Now in addition to the pride of growing fruits and vegetables, our students and teachers involved in schoolyard gardens can be a part of a larger community initiative, Friendship Gardens, helping their neighbors receive locally grown and locally prepared meals.

We need summertime garden volunteers!

The Catawba River District is still looking for volunteers to help weed, harvest our gardens this summer and to support the teachers and students throughout the school year as we strive to plant in the fall, spring and summer this coming year.
To volunteer email me at echirico@catawbariverdistrict.org.
Visit CatawbaRiverDistrict.org to learn much more about our schoolyard gardens.

Edna Chirico
Executive Director