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Centreville Community School Update

I first met community engagement coordinator, Valerie Carmichael last fall at a meeting of the coordinators for the province. She was happy to hear and learn about about NFL and our programs. At that time, they were in the early stages of being one of the pilot schools for a new farm to school program here in the province. Valerie invited me to participate in the kick-off event held at the school on October 7th. They had booths from around the area showcasing various aspects of agriculture and healthy living, lots of activities to educate the students and families and, the students even prepared the meal for the event! The children decorated the school for fall and displayed the many pumpkins that they had grown in the school garden.

I then had a chance to visit with Mrs. Debertin and Mrs. Hitchcock grades 2-4 classes to talk about soil, the importance of keeping it healthy and how phosphorus and potassium are mined out of the ground to become nutrients for plants to use. The 2 classes were responsible for the garden this year. It was great to see how much the students were into growing seedlings right in the classroom on May 4th. Mrs. Debertins’s class even had some tomatosphere tomato plants growing. They were a delight to speak with and we had some great conversations. Centreville is in the heart of potato country in New Brunswick and many of the students had ties to the industry. The school is also finding its way to introduce the students to healthy food in the cafeteria and buying locally grown food. I think there is huge potential at this school to continue to broaden their horizons on food production!