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DEAR GARDENERS
Dear School & Learning Gardeners,

October is National Farm to School Month! This year, the theme is “It takes a community to feed a community.”
Register for the NC Crunch! Join the state of North Carolina in celebrating National Farm to School Month by crunching into a locally grown fruit or vegetable on Wednesday, October 21, 2020 at noon.

Participants of all ages are invited to crunch! Across the state, kids and adults will be crunching into North Carolina grown produce that is available from a local farm in October.
 
This event is about uniting together to acknowledge North Carolina agriculture, National Farm to School and Early Care and Education month, produce grown by local farmers, and healthy eating.
Everyone is invited to participate. If the designated day/time are not convenient, feel free to crunch any time during October. We would like for as many folks to have the opportunity to participate as possible.  
 
A Crunch Guide has been created with information on sourcing produce, curriculum connections, and social media and press release templates to help you share your Crunch with the local community, and more. We know that the North Carolina Crunch will look different this year–that’s okay! This year’s Crunch Guide includes tips for crunching during COVID-19. 
 
Nominate a Community Food Champion: Who are your community members - farmers, cafeteria workers, teachers, gardeners, bus drivers, volunteers, advocates, and others - that are feeding children and families, supporting local food systems, and going above and beyond in 2020? Nominate them to receive a $500 honorarium and be named a National Farm to School Network Community Food Champion. Nominate your Champions here.


Wishing you all health and wellness,

Quina Weber-Shirk
Community & School Garden Agent
NC Cooperative Extension Guilford County
OCTOBER HIGHLIGHT
Learning Garden Highlight: Triad Math and Science Academy Distance Learning

First grade students at Triad Math and Science Academy have started a virtual garden with Mr. SeanTrollinger. He is a Soil and Water Educator for the Guilford County Soil and Water Conservation District. Each week, Sean virtually teaches TMSA first graders about gardening and how to take care of plants. Before Covid-19, Mr. Trollinger would go to different schools and teach children about the importance of soil and water. 

The Guilford County Soil and Water Conservation District offers a variety of K-12 environmental education programs for students and teachers, including in-school, after school, library and summer programs. All programs utilize STEM and inquiry-based methods, and are correlated to NC core standards where applicable.
Custom environmental and natural resource education programs for students and adults are available upon request.

All programs are provided free of charge. Please contact Sean Trollinger for more information at 336-641-2444 or strollinge@guilfordcountync.gov.

UPCOMING OPPORTUNITIES
Webinar from the Extension Master Gardener℠ program of Guilford County: Backyard Composting - Recycling with Nature, Thursday, Oct 8, 6 pm

  • Composting is a great natural way to recycle organic material – an estimated 25% of a household’s waste is food scraps and yard trimmings that can be composted. We’ll address the most frequently asked questions about this simple process to help you produce a free soil amendment that improves texture and fertility, which helps all your plants to grow better. Fall leaves provide an excellent seasonal source of raw material so now is a perfect time to get started! Discussion will include the easiest ways to begin in your own backyard, and review the basics like what should or shouldn’t be composted. We’ll also briefly share a little info about having a successful “worm bin” at home. Participants will receive handouts and links to lots of additional research-based information and resources.
Learn, Grow, Eat, Go Series
Join a free pilot program for a virtual 10-week series of “Learn, Grow, Eat, Go!” from the Junior Master Gardener Program from Cooperative Extension. The program is written for elementary age students. This new, digital content is being be primarily created for a future online course for elementary students learning at a distance. It will closely mirror the existing 2 lessons/week for 10 weeks LGEG curriculum. It will provide interactive, video-based content for all 20 LGEG lessons and ALSO provide specific resources supporting opportunities for weekly, live “check-ins” by the classroom teacher. You and your students can access the entire set of all 20 virtual lessons & resources for free by signing up to be a part of the national pilot of this new, exciting JMG project!

4 Lessons For School Gardens

4 Lessons for School Gardens, created by NC A&T Horticulture students Michael Falla and Alexa Stanely for Brooks Global Elementary. 

  • Living Fresh (nutrition and fresh fruits and vegetables)
  • Growing Tomatoes
  • Farm Tools
  • Food Desert
The Edible Schoolyard Project 

The Edible Schoolyard Project has released a new curriculum for 6th - 9th graders, Cooking with Curiosity, designed to introduce students to cooking skills. It is for both distance and in-person learning. 

Nature for Children’s Health and Wellbeing (free webinar, registration required), Thursday, October 8th, 10:30am - 12 pm

Join the Kentucky Environmental Education Council as they welcome Dr. Louise Chawla who will be delivering the Keynote address on Nature for Children's Health and Wellbeing via Zoom during the 5th Annual Kentucky Children's Environmental Health Summit on October 8, 2020, at 10:30 am-12 pm EST. Registration is free but is required to attend Louise Chawla is Professor Emerita of Environmental Design at the University of Colorado Boulder, an Executive Committee member of the Community Engagement, Design and Research Center in the design program, and an Executive Committee member of Growing Up Boulder, a partnership among the university, city government, school district, and many community organizations to include children and youth in urban design and planning. 

She also serves on the Scientific Advisory Committee of Children and Nature Network. Her research and publishing covers children and nature, children in cities, child and youth participation in planning and design, and the development of active care for the natural world. She is a co-author of the recent book, Placemaking with Children and Youth: Participatory Practices for Planning Sustainable Cities (New Village Press, 2018). Dr. Chawla received her Bachelor’s degree from Hunter College, her Masters in Education & Child Development from Bryn Mawr College, and her Ph.D. in Environmental Psychology from the City University of New York Graduate Center.
THIS MONTH IN THE GARDEN

A chill has entered the air, and I’ve noticed leaves starting to turn around Guilford County -- fall is here! This means starting to pay close attention to the low temperatures forecast this month, and covering sensitive plants in the garden, if needed. Halloween, October 31st, is the average first fall freeze date in Guilford County. This date is an average taken from historical temperature data -- the actual first fall freeze date varies by about a 2 week period. 

NC State University has released two new tools for tracking First and Last Frost Dates by County.
 
Roll your cursor over a colored dot to see information from a specific weather station. There are buttons at the top of the map that let you switch between viewing average first and last frost date.
 
There is also a chart by county
Both tools were prepared specifically for North Carolina by Corey Davis, and Darrian Bertrand, Applied Climatologists, State Climate Office of North Carolina.
RESOURCES

  • Does your learning garden need seeds? Contact Quina Weber-Shirk, Community & School Garden Agent, jjwebers@ncsu.edu.

  • A Guidance Template for Gardening during Covid-19 created by the University of Minnesota Extension provides best practices for minimizing risk while working in a garden space. Originally created for community gardens, this template has sections that are most definitely applicable for schools interested in thinking critically about sanitation and safe social distancing protocols.

  • Green Schoolyards of America’s Covid-19 Outdoor Learning Page serves as a compilation of resources to help teachers and administrators creatively and realistically navigate re-purposing outdoor spaces as classrooms. Many of the resources listed here are not specially focused on school gardens, because the truth is you don’t need a growing space to have an outdoor classroom or to teach outside. That being said, many of the tips and strategies recommended by Green Schoolyards of America and their working groups are relevant to folks invested in school garden programming and infrastructure.