UConn- WMS Garden

Many youth enroll to learn about gardening and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) or to make new friends.  Youth plant and maintain a portion of two gardens – one section in the main floor interior courtyard garden; and another exterior garden measuring 25’ X 75’ with fifteen 8’ x 4’ raised beds.  They constructed the exterior garden to the left of the middle school by the tennis courts.  (It has picket fencing, a picnic table with benches and a compost bin).  In 2014 alone, the fifteen – 8’ x 4’ raised beds produced 10 pounds of cauliflower, 5 pounds of broccoli, 15 pounds of onions, 15 pounds of sweet peppers, 6 pounds of hot peppers, 3 pounds of garlic and over 120 pounds of tomatoes of different varieties.  Youth harvested and prepared over a dozen recipes with these crops. Some of the food was brought home to their families and they gave some to their community at school events.  Youth also built and managed a compost bin with the help of EastConn students.  The compost bin was built from donated pallets and created a three bay compost system.  The youth researched how it worked and painted directions on the sides of it.

In addition to the two gardens that produce food, youth also applied their time and skills to beautify flower gardens around the exterior of Windham Middle School (WMS).  This is part of their community service responsibilities.  Since the fall of 2013, students periodically clean, weed and mulch a flower garden located outside of the WMS gym.  Youth learned that in order to have success growing food, plants that produce food need pollen from insects.  When the garden outside the gym has flowers, the flowers attract the bees.  The bees in turn fly into the large exterior garden and transfer pollen to the food producing plants.  Pollen from the flowers is necessary to make the plants produce what the vegetables they are growing.  Not only is the flower garden attractive, but it plays a key role in supporting the food producing plants nearby.   

 In 2012 and 2013, the main crop of the garden was hot sauce.  The program had a relationship with Doug Crane and his business, Dragon’s Blood Elixir.  The youth grew hot peppers to “sell” to his hot sauce company.  This opportunity gave the youth some business experience.  Doug visited programs and did hot sauce demonstrations and explained first-hand how to be an entrepreneur.  Hopefully, this experience will inspire some youths to start her/his business in the future!  

During the summer programs, the youth got the opportunity to take a field trip.  In 2012, 2013 and 2014, youth took a bus to the UConn Storrs campus.  At the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources, they toured the animal barns, had ice cream and visited Spring Valley Farm.  At the farm, they participated in tours which assisted them with their projects.  Spring Valley Farm has been another great relationship, beside us visiting them; the staff members visit the program regularly and teach the kids about various gardening and life skills.

Marc Cournoyer, the Windham County 4-H Coordinator, engages the youth in 4-H and science whenever he visits.  He has worked with over 100 of the Healthy Hands Youth doing a variety of 4-H and STEM activities such as Lego Robotics.  Improving their public speaking skills or “Teach it Forward” as we call it, is also led by Marc.  He encourages youth to join other county and state 4-H activities offered by UConn Extension.    

Dianisi Torres has taught the 4-H Healthy Hands youth how to prepare over a dozen recipes with safety and good health as a priority.  Dianisi is the Windham County EFNEP Educator and the program’s youth love when she visits!  Their favorite recipe is when she makes smoothies with them and teaches them about healthy drink choices.  She surprises them with how much sugar is in the drinks they are consuming as one of her programs.

The UConn 4-H Healthy Hands Garden Program provides Windham Middle School youth an experience to learn leadership skills, a work ethic, nutrition, STEM and gardening.  The program meets in the fall and spring two times a week after school for three hours.  We also meet part-time during the summer, three days a week, for four hours.  Since the start of the partnership with Windham Public School District at Windham Middle School in the spring of 2012, 122 students have taken part and completed the after school and summer program.  Of those students, 70 were female and 52 were male.  In Fall 2014, of the 18 whom finished the program, 10 were 6^th graders, 7 were 7^th graders and 1 was an 8^th grader.  Youth have the opportunity to earn stipends which is similar to earning money for work.  In 2014, 39 participants earned a total of $1765.