Despite that darn raccoon that raided the chicken coop, SenPokChin in Oliver is still one of the “greenest” schools in BC and Canada.
The facility has been recognized for creating a greener school grounds through funding from the Toyota Evergreen Learning Grounds program. This is because the school has a garden bed and new chicken coop that students look after.
In 2016 more than 48,000 students and staff in schools across Canada transformed their playgrounds into a healthy place to play, learn and connect with nature.
The national program, led by Evergreen, distributed funds to 110 schools, with 14 located in BC.
For example, SenPokChin’s garden and chicken coop have inspired discovery among the students and supported environmental awareness and stewardship.
“Through this innovative long-standing initiative, students and staff each year have access to expert hands-on environmental learning and the unique opportunity to design and create their school’s new outdoor space,” said Geoff Cape, Evergreen CEO.
Examples of these learning opportunities include year-round outdoor classrooms in North Vancouver, a food and pollinator garden for kindergarten students in Montreal, and an edible garden in Saskatoon, all sustainable food-growing practices.
SenPokChin elementary school, operated by the Osoyoos Indian Band, has an existing garden and chicken coop that provides food for the school lunch program.
The school received a grant of $1,000 to further their efforts in growing food on site. With the grant from Toyota Evergreen, the school added to their edible space by creating a food forest. They planted 35 edible trees and shrubs including native Saskatoon berry shrubs, or “Seeya” in the Okanagan language.
The food forest adds an important, dedicated space in the schoolyard for individual students to connect with nature as well as provide an expanded outdoor education space for teachers to utilize for project-based learning. The creation of the food forest is also helping create new partnerships with the farming community.
However, the school suffered a setback when a raccoon reportedly raided the chicken coop. That little rascal! But that won’t stop the school from forging ahead with the outdoor program in 2017.
