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Canton students learn about healthy food, eco-friendly practices

Posted 10/5/19

NCNow photo by Cheryl Shumway.   CANTON – About 75 members of the Green Team club at Canton’s middle school visited four local businesses and farms last week to learn about healthy food …

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Canton students learn about healthy food, eco-friendly practices

Posted

NCNow photo by Cheryl Shumway.

 CANTON – About 75 members of the Green Team club at Canton’s middle school visited four local businesses and farms last week to learn about healthy food sources and good environmental practices.

The students toured Canton Apples, SUNY Potsdam’s WISER Center greenhouse, Martin’s Farmstand, Potsdam, and Cornell Cooperative Extension Learning Farm, Canton.

“The purpose of the field trip is for students to appreciate where their food comes from. We chose locations that were environmentally conscious and show how to grow food in sustainable ways,” said Megan Smith, Green Team advisor.

“The purpose of the Green Team club is to engage kids in the environment and outdoor activities. Students are involved with indoor and outdoor gardening,” said seventh grade teacher Kimberly Newman.

Students expressed many reasons for joining the after-school Green Team club.

“I like to garden, and being on the Green Team is fun. You can plant and help save the Earth,” said fifth grader Kennedi Fennell.

Fifth grader Harper Terrell said, “I like to save the Earth, and I have fun staying after school and cooking tomato pasta.”

“I’m learning how to take care of the Earth,” said sixth grader Gage Lane.

Daniel Martin, owner of Martin’s Farmstand, explained, “I enjoy children getting exposed to life and gardening in a healthy way, with hands-on learning.”

[img_assist|nid=267175|title=Megan Smith, teacher of Canton middle school’s Green Team club, left, and students Lily Moore and Lennon Porter pick tomatoes during a recent field trip to Martin’s Farmstand, Potsdam. NCNow photo.|desc=|link=none|align=middle|width=776|height=1024]After Martin’s Farmstand, students

finished their field trip at the Cooperative Extension’s Learning Farm. The Harvest Kitchen tour showed where food from the farm is prepared before sending it to the school’s cafeteria.

Lastly, students saw the anaerobic digester on the Learning Farm, where the school cafeteria’s food waste is turned into fertilizer and energy.

“The Environmental Club at Canton high school, with advisor Tom VandeWater, started a waste food separation program in the school cafeteria - they collected food waste for 'resource recovery' - turning it to energy and fertilizer in an anaerobic digester. Last year the middle school’s Green Team also started sorting their food waste for resource recovery.

“It is refreshing to see students understanding the process of sorting food waste and being involved in the recycling process,” said Newman.

Stefan Grimberg and Jan DeWaters, Clarkson University professors, lead a project with Cornell Cooperative Extension Learning Farm to teach Canton Central School students about resource recovery.

“More than 200 pounds of food waste per week are collected by Canton school and brought to the Learning Farm’s anaerobic digester,” said Nick Hamilton-Honey, Cornell Cooperative Extension educator. She and several Clarkson students developed educational modules about resource recovery and anaerobic digestion that Canton Central school teachers used in their classes last year.

The digester converts organic waste into biogas, a methane-rich fuel used to heat the small greenhouse and make fertilizer used at the Learning Farm.

The partnership project is funded by a grant from Constellation Energy. Grimberg said he is hoping to receive another Energy to Educate grant next year, to expand the project into the elementary school cafeteria.