SVSS Plants Seeds at Stamford Elementary School

by Stephen Greene

May 1, 2018

As the last few snowflakes drifted out of the sky on Monday, April 30th, Stamford Vermont Seed Savers brought the new school garden into the classroom at Stamford Elementary School.  At the invitation of Principal Micah Hayre, SVSS volunteers Helen Fields and Stephen Greene instructed four classes, grades K through eight, on seed germination and growth.  Students were asked to germinate vegetable and flower seeds for a new school garden that was built last year by volunteers from the Stamford community. Students will be watering and caring for the seedlings in their classrooms until they are ready to go outside in a few weeks. Some of the plants will go to the school garden, some are destined for flower boxes that will be installed around town and the rest will go home with the kids to be planted in their home gardens when the weather warms.

Many of the vegetables that were planted by the children are heirloom varieties that demonstrate the potential diversity of familiar food crops, such as yellow cherry tomatoes, hot Thai peppers and red iceberg lettuce.  The flower varieties were chosen specifically for their benefits to native pollinators, and will be used in flower boxes around the town.

Funding for SVSS activities during the past year came from the New England Grassroots Environmental Fund and funding for the grow lights that are being used in the classrooms came from individual donations made to SVSS during Stamford’s Community Green Up Day 2018.

About the New England Grassroots Environment Fund

The New England Grassroots Environment Fund (Grassroots Fund) energizes and nurtures long-term civic engagement in local initiatives that create and maintain healthy, just, safe and sustainable communities using stories, tools and dollars to fuel local activism and social change. Since 1996, the Grassroots Fund’s core grantmaking program continues to fund nearly 150 grants annually, giving more than $4 million in 20 years to initiatives by better than 1,700 community groups covering more than 60 percent of New England’s cities and towns.   

For more information, please visit grassrootsfund.org or call 603-905-9915.