On the Bright Side: Cornell helps area school's project come to fruition

Local News

Discussion

COMMENTING ON STORIES:

Welcome to our story comments feature. We welcome your thoughts and your opinions, including the unpopular ones. We only ask that you keep your conversations clean, civil and on the topic of the story you are commenting on.

Coinciding with our websites redesign, we launched our new story comments feature through Disqus.

Disqus gives users the ability to log into our story comments feature so that they may be able to track their conversations, receive emails when their comments get a reply or to even have your comments update onto your Facebook or Twitter accounts.

For the time being, our story comments feature will continue to have the ability to post comments anonymously. We reserve the right to require registration in the future using your name and verified email address.

Not all comments are deemed printable. Some are disqualified at the newspaper’s discretion for a number of different reasons. Please follow our Online Rules of Conduct at all times.

RULES OF CONDUCT:

We reserve the right to remove comments that are unacceptable, to wit:

1. False and inacurate statements.
2. Personal attacks. Explicit name-calling.
3. Harassing, harmful, vulgar, obscene and defamatory language.
4. Threatening statements or statements that suggest violence.
5. Hate speech of any kind.
6. Intolerant comments on religion, race, age, gender, sexual preference or disabilities.
7. Accusations of criminal activity.
8. Content that is harmful to children and minors in any way.
9. References to any type of sexual activity and other private matters.
10. Random and inflammatory statements that are off topic.
11. Advertising of any kind.
12. Typing in all caps.

WE ENCOURAGE REASONABLE AND COURTEOUS COMMENTS THAT:

1. Create conversation on issues of interest and concern to fellow readers and local community members.
2. Express opinions and contrarian views.
3. Stimulate debate with respectful language.
4. Stay within the boundaries of these rules.

WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO SUSPEND OR TERMINATE ACCESS FOR:

1. Violating any of these Online Rules of Conduct.
2. Deliberately disrupting discussions with repetitive messages, meaningless messages or spam.
3. Misrepresentation of identity or impersonating another user.

WE WELCOME:

1. Flagging violations of these rules that you observe to our attention.

MONITORING:

We monitor comments regularly Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Approval of comments outside of this time (including weekends) will be sporadic.

comments powered by Disqus

February 18, 2012

By Shirley O'Shea Contributing Writer The Daily Star Sat Feb 18, 2012, 02:30 AM EST

Students at Roxbury Central School are on their way to becoming self-sufficient locavores, at least when they're at school.

That's due to the school's growing enterprise of a vegetable, flower and herb garden, now in its ninth year, that is going to bear fruit as well, thanks to a $500 grant from Cornell University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences' "Kids Growing Food" program.

The funds will be used to purchase fruit trees and berry bushes, according to a media release issued by the school Wednesday.

The school garden began as a Creating Rural Opportunities Program activity, Thomas O'Brien, the school's superintendent, said Friday. CROP is a regional after-school and summer program that "promotes student achievement through academic improvement and enrichment opportunities," according to the Otsego Northern Catskills BOCES website.

O'Brien said the garden is primarily a CROP and summer activity, but it is also integrated into curriculum instruction for students in grades kindergarten through eight.

"Our garden has really been growing lately," O'Brien said. "We think we can start preserving some of the food and using it in our cafeteria."

Ellen Stewart, the school's CROP coordinator, said Friday the local Cornell Cooperative Extension informed her about the competitive grant opportunity. She applied for the grant in late October and learned about two weeks ago that Roxbury's CROP had received the award.

"We were the only school that had a fruit component (in their grant application), which is what (Cornell) felt made our application stand out," Stewart said.

Madalyn Warren of Roxbury is an organic vegetable farmer who has worked with Roxbury students in the school's garden since last year.

"I wanted to see the garden growing abundantly," she said Friday.

Warren said the garden promotes students' agricultural literacy, which she described as an "understanding of where food comes from and how it is produced."

Warren said, "Young children have lost their link to the production side of food and slowly become consumers."

Warren said she hopes working in a garden will change that. Being residents of a traditionally agricultural region with a number of working farms can help students become more aware of what is involved in the complex system of food production, she said.

The Cornell grant money will be used to purchase apple, pear, cherry, peach and plum trees, and raspberry, blueberry, blackberry and currant bushes, Warren said.

Warren said that she is excited to introduce "the magic of perennials" into the garden, which until now has consisted mainly of annuals.

"(It) solves the summer month lag," Warren said.

Of serving the garden raised produce in the school's cafeteria, Warren said, "Being able to feed the students nutrient-dense food will definitely influence education in terms of (students') health. They will be more engaged."