On Community Service Day, the second graders spent the morning at Gaining Ground in Concord. Gaining Ground is a local nonprofit farm that grows and distributes 100% of its organic produce to local hunger relief agencies. Last year, Gaining Ground grew and distributed over 120,000 pounds of organic produce. Our students spread compost to prepare beds for planting, helping the farmers with their work and supporting people experiencing food insecurity. The work at the farm was a culmination of a year-long service learning project that linked work in our BDS garden with fundraising, education, and community action. The work with Gaining Ground supports the second grade social studies curriculum, where students have been mapping food labels to better understand where food comes from, the environmental and nutritional impacts of transporting food, and equitable access to fresh food. This spring, the second graders participated in a program called Read for Seeds. They collected pledges from relatives, friends, and neighbors for the number of pages they read during a two-week period. This year, the second graders are proud to announce that they raised $15,535.83 to donate to Gaining Ground’s seed budget! We would like to thank everybody who supported them by making a pledge, reading alongside them, and cheering for them every step of the way.
– Nancy O’Brien, Nancy Fell, and Paula Vasiliadis, the second grade teaching team
