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St. Francis has partnered with Paradise Farms and Plainview Farms of Bend to provide local, organic, sustainable, fresh and nutritious food from St. Francis School’s new, on-site organic greenhouse and outdoor garden.
The school will commemorate the greenhouse and its sustainable farming initiative at a ribbon cutting ceremony 2:30pm, Friday, April 23rd, after which students will begin planting for their first harvest. The new greenhouse and subsequent organic farm will use the compost created in bins built by the school’s second and third grades to create nutrient-rich soil blocks and to enrich the outdoor garden beds. Students will plant seeds, nurture seedlings and harvest crops, some of which will be included in the school’s lunch. In addition to creating a community garden for all school families to enjoy, St. Francis School plans to sell its crops and flowering plants to support a healthy Central Oregon community.
St. Francis has big goals for its organic farm, including teaching children about sustainable farming, from crop planning to sales, exploring the nutritional benefits of produce grown locally and free of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, understanding how local, organic farming benefits the Central Oregon economy by creating jobs in the community, learning about the environmental benefits of healthy soils, clean waterways, and allowing each grade to care for its own section of crops. Sustainability is nothing new for the school. “We produce about 20 pounds of compost per week by composting fruits and vegetables from our lunch program,” said Head Teacher Julie Roberts. “We also send newsletters via email and create classroom worksheets from recycled paper collected by teachers.”
When asked why Paradise and Plainview Farms are sponsoring this program through teaching classes, donating materials and supplying the first starts to the school, said Charlie Rich of Paradise Farms, “We both have a desire to help create a local, sustainable food system, and this can happen through partnerships within the community. Locally and sustainably grown food is more nutritional, preserves environmental resources, supports the local economy and just tastes better.” “We also know that it has to start with the kids,” said Kevin McBride of Plainview Farms. “They’re the most open to new ideas.” Once St. Francis students are educated on sustainable agriculture and the process of harvesting their crops, the school plans to add an elective program next school year to teach how to plan for crops, use soil blocks for starts, employ season extension strategies and learn to grow and sell a crop successfully.
About Saint Francis School
St. Francis of Assisi School (saintfrancisschool.net) was founded in 1936 by the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary. St. Francis is committed to providing academic excellence coupled with morals, respect and core religious values. St. Francis invites the public to its greenhouse ribbon cutting ceremony 2:30pm, Friday, April 23rd at St. Francis School.
About Paradise and Plainview Farms
Paradise Farms, owned by Charlie Rich and Adam Bass, and Plainview Farms, owned by Kevin and Shirley McBride, is a cooperative partnership between Bend neighbors who share a vision to create a local, sustainable food system in Central Oregon. They are collaborating with other local farmers to create farming and distribution systems that will supply fresh, nutritious and sustainably grown food to the local community for generations to come. The Farms’ fresh produce is available at Paradise Produce Farm Stand at 30 SW Century Dr in Bend and through various Community Supported Agriculture programs.
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