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"The Cornucopia Project is dedicated to teaching sustainable and nourishing life practices to children by connecting them to the land."
Have you ever walked into a garden with children clamoring to eat fresh tomatoes and carrots? Or watched young hands deliver fresh produce to the kitchen of a cafeteria, knowing their handiwork in the garden will feed their friends and teachers?
 Today, most children are raised on fast food and simply don't know where their food comes from. Highly processed food is the norm, grown on industrial farms far away, handled by many people, and trucked thousands of miles. The effects on their diet are alarming. Obesity, early childhood diabetes, hormonal imbalance, and attention deficit are just some of the health challenges of today that may be directly related to childhood diet. What we all agree on is that good nutrition plays a vital role in promoting growth, health, and learning. With first-hand experience of the soil, water, plants and insects we all can begin to take better care of the earth and ourselves. So The Cornucopia Project starts at the beginning – with the children.
The Cornucopia Project is a pilot program committed to teaching young people about healthy nutrition. The project involves integrating work in a greenhouse and school garden into the school curriculum. Through hands-on experience with growing and harvesting food, participating students will see many elements of their standard curriculum (science, history, geography, social studies) brought to life. Beyond this, they will gain actual experience with the importance of thoughtful stewardship of the land and the value of locally grown food. Cornucopia Project students will grow, cook, and share their food at the lunch table. And they will get the taste of real "fast food" – picked fresh and eaten only steps away from where it was grown.
The rewards of a school garden reach into every area of a child's life. Not the least of these rewards is the physical and mental well-being that we know comes through harmony with nature. A school garden will awaken the senses, bring classroom learning to life, promote good health, and build long-lasting community bonds.
WHY A SCHOOL GARDEN?
Cornucopia Project students are involved in real tasks with tangible (and tasty) outcomes. The garden and kitchen provide a forum for teaching nutrition and encouraging healthy food choices. And children love tasting the fruits of their labor. Students in this program are encouraged to explore, to touch, to smell, and to taste on their own while building and maintaining the garden and using the harvest to produce their lunches. Each day, they will be encouraged to record in a journal what they have discovered, allowing them to process their experience and give greater meaning to the work.
Why Crotched Mountain School?
Crotched Mountain School serves 128 students with a variety of disabilities who come to Greenfield from throughout New England as well as most of the region's communities. Crotched Mountain students enjoy a close relationship with their teachers and caregivers, as well as with adult volunteers, teachers, and students from nearby school districts. The curriculum at Crotched Mountain is heavily reliant on experiential learning – and includes hands-on experience in numerous disciplines, including horticulture, woodworking, journalism, and many others. The garden being developed at Crotched Mountain will serve as a model that all area elementary schools will be invited to replicate.
Beyond planting, tending, and harvesting their crops on the Mountain, Cornucopia students will work in partnership with students from nearby collaborating schools – who themselves will be working to create their own school garden programs back home. Through this array of experiences, students will learn to work in teams, cooperating and problem solving to produce the foods which will eventually become their lunch.
Because the growing season in no way corresponds to the traditional school calendar, maintaining a school garden during the critical summer months is especially challenging to most traditional schools. However, Crotched Mountain School operates year-round, with a full faculty and student complement in session through the summer months. By placing Crotched Mountain School and its students in the vanguard of this effort, the Cornucopia Project will be a model of student/parent involvement, promoting diversity and sustainable community gardening for all students, regardless of their age or ability, and as a family activity in which parents and children can both share.
 One overarching goal of The Cornucopia Project is to engage students and staff from collaborating schools in the region and to encourage them to start school gardens of their own. Cornucopia Project students from these partner schools (public and private) will work with their teachers to enlist their parents in supporting this program, especially during those summertime weeks when those schools are usually closed. Parent involvement will be one key to the ultimate success of every school garden, and Cornucopia students will benefit from interacting with adults other than their teachers, thus improving social skills, and will represent the Project to their home school communities throughout the year.
Students in The Cornucopia Project develop a heightened sense of environmental responsibility through their exposure to the school garden project. They are able to learn about sustainable agriculture practice and many, if not all, will cultivate a preference for fresh locally grown produce. As an added bonus for each participating school, the school garden also provides an unusual and beautiful gathering spot for outdoor classrooms, celebrations, and quiet time.
The Cornucopia Project at Crotched Mountain seeks contributions to build a suitable greenhouse on the grounds of Crotched Mountain Rehabilitation Center and Crotched Mountain School in Greenfield, NH. In the greenhouse, we will start all the seedlings to be planted in both the on-mountain school garden and at Sunnyfield Farm in nearby Peterborough, NH, which is owned and operated by Crotched Mountain. As the program grows and the harvests with it, Cornucopia students will participate in a small farmers market at Crotched Mountain (or in the partner schools) where they will be able to sell excess produce and save to buy seed and supplies for the next year's growing season.
One additional goal of the Cornucopia Project is to give participating students a broad and holistic understanding of food production, from planting through sale to consumption. Though at Crotched Mountain, we anticipate offering student-grown produce first to the Crotched Mountain cafeteria, we envision a time when students in the program may be able to participate in the Peterborough Farmers Market, introducing students to the concept of a market garden through the experience of selling their own student-grown produce to area families.
In 2006-2007, the students from Crotched Mountain School will partner with fifth and eighth grade students from the Great Brook School in Antrim, NH. This exciting and innovative new project will become the model school garden program for all schools in the Monadnock Region and beyond.
To carry the Cornucopia Project forward and realize its full potential, we are seeking the support of individuals, companies, and private foundations who share our vision of a healthier future for all our people through local sustainable agriculture practices. Donors at all levels will be recognized for their support – as key ingredients in our Cornucopia:
CARROT: $50 - $149
TOMATO: $150 - $249
CABBAGE: $250 - $499
BEET: $500 - $999
PARSNIP: $1000 - $2500
GREEN BEAN: $2600 - $5999
BROCCOLI: $6000 - $9999
BLUE HUBBARD: $10,000 and above
Donate Now!
For further information, contact:
Kin Schilling
Cornucopia Project Leader
c/o Crotched Mountain Foundation
One Verney Drive
Greenfield, NH 03047
603-547-3311, extension 1478
e-mail: cornucopia@crotchedmountain.org
Tax-deductible contributions may be made payable to:
"Crotched Mountain Foundation"
One Verney Drive
Greenfield, NH 03047
Please specify that your gift is in support of The Cornucopia Project.
You can also make a donation through our online Donation Form.
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