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The many varieties of fruit trees planted at Biggs Elementary School are because of a vast amount of volunteers interested in the students eating healthy along with their families.
Over the summer, different families signed up for a week of watering each so that the 20+ trees would be in good shape for the beginning of the school season.
A group called Common Vision arrived at the school in their big retired Greyhound Bus that is painted blue and runs on vegetable oil and solar. Volunteers exit the traveling bus to visit schools in Northern California and help plant fruit trees to instill healthy eating in the children's minds.
The nine to twelve volunteers travel from Mendocino to Nevada City to Big Bend in two weeks time and say they are well fed during their travels with organic foods.
Melody Sage of Oakland, said the ninth annual tour started September 18 with trees being donated by different nurseries.
Michael Flynn, another Common Vision volunteer, shows the students how to graft the fruit trees and sapplings and how to prune the trees that have already been planted.
The volunteers also paint signs and fill garden boxes in the school garden while some plant new fruit trees with the students.
It is truly a great learning experience for the students as they learn how to properly dig the holes and plant the trees before learning to care for them.
BES Teacher Christianne Langford appreciates the help of Chico State Farm Advisory Group and University of California Cooperative Extension, who teach a pruning workshop and garden enhanced nutrition education, along with physical activity and healthy school environments.
Common Vision planted 25 fruit trees in 2009 and UC Extension helped Langford get a $250 garden grant in 2007-2008. The school also received a California Fertilizer Grant that has helped with expenses, along with the students selling plants, garden starts, strawberries and seeds at their garden party each spring.
Also in the spring, the UC Cooperative Extension provides a chef for a cooking program for the students where they all get a chance to cook.
“Teachers at Biggs are working to keep agriculture education intact through our partnership. Students reap the benefits of hands on learning which includes eating their own garden harvest,” stated Jona Pressman, nutrition program manager at UC Cooperative Extension.
This program collaborates with Sierra Cascade Nutrition and Activity Consortium providing nutrition and garden resources and support to teachers, students and their families.
The many varieties of fruit trees planted at Biggs Elementary School are because of a vast amount of volunteers interested in the students eating healthy along with their families.
Over the summer, different families signed up for a week of watering each so that the 20+ trees would be in good shape for the beginning of the school season.
A group called Common Vision arrived at the school in their big retired Greyhound Bus that is painted blue and runs on vegetable oil and solar. Volunteers exit the traveling bus to visit schools in Northern California and help plant fruit trees to instill healthy eating in the children's minds.
The nine to twelve volunteers travel from Mendocino to Nevada City to Big Bend in two weeks time and say they are well fed during their travels with organic foods.
Melody Sage of Oakland, said the ninth annual tour started September 18 with trees being donated by different nurseries.
Michael Flynn, another Common Vision volunteer, shows the students how to graft the fruit trees and sapplings and how to prune the trees that have already been planted.
The volunteers also paint signs and fill garden boxes in the school garden while some plant new fruit trees with the students.
It is truly a great learning experience for the students as they learn how to properly dig the holes and plant the trees before learning to care for them.
BES Teacher Christianne Langford appreciates the help of Chico State Farm Advisory Group and University of California Cooperative Extension, who teach a pruning workshop and garden enhanced nutrition education, along with physical activity and healthy school environments.
Common Vision planted 25 fruit trees in 2009 and UC Extension helped Langford get a $250 garden grant in 2007-2008. The school also received a California Fertilizer Grant that has helped with expenses, along with the students selling plants, garden starts, strawberries and seeds at their garden party each spring.
Also in the spring, the UC Cooperative Extension provides a chef for a cooking program for the students where they all get a chance to cook.
“Teachers at Biggs are working to keep agriculture education intact through our partnership. Students reap the benefits of hands on learning which includes eating their own garden harvest,” stated Jona Pressman, nutrition program manager at UC Cooperative Extension.
This program collaborates with Sierra Cascade Nutrition and Activity Consortium providing nutrition and garden resources and support to teachers, students and their families.
Biggs Elementary had so much fun with their orchard, they had to extend last year to a “new” garden area in the spring and they are very appreciative of the groups and individuals that have made this project possible.
“Young Farmers and Ranchers,” donated all of the posts for the trees, parent Juan Arrellano donated all of the plumbing work and Gregg Mann built all of the raised garden beds, installed the chain link fencing to protect the trees and set up the irrigation and monitors.
“We have received awesome support from so many people,” Langford said.
Local citizens had been invited to attend after school to learn how to care for fruit trees.
The school still needs a big shade structure, but they do have a shed that was graciously donated by Sunwest Milling. They even have a green house that just needs to be set up.
Sierra Gold is just one of the nurseries that donate trees to Common Vision for the two week project, benefiting several elementary schools.
Langford is so into her job, that she recently moved from the quarter-acre she had planted in garden to an acre that she now will have to plant also. She wants to raise chickens, livestock, and maybe even ducks in the future.
Students at BES receive breakfast in the classroom each day and Mrs. Langford's students gather their scraps in a bowl to be fed to their teacher's chickens.
Last Tuesday, students were helped in replacing Apple trees with peaches and nectarines and planting a persimmon, a pineapple guava “Fejioa,” two mandarins and a fig tree.
Student Billy Adams wrote in his journal, “Today I got to garden and plant a tree with Common Vision. My leader was Billy. His name is just like mine. That's so cool.
“I love my school. Billy was fun to work with. He told us a lot of stuff about trees. The tree we planted was a mandarin tree. I can't wait until it grows so I can eat one. I bet it will be so yummy. Some day I'm going to have my own garden and orchard filled with lots of healthy fruits and veggies. I can't wait until I have my own garden.”
Volunteer Faith Sabatine of Ukiah, stated that it is fun for the volunteers to take over an orchard with their roaming caravan, where a number of the students remember planting the orchard two years ago, working with them again.
