This week, Cary Academy and Durham Academy came out to The Food Shuttle Farm and our Geer Street Learning Garden to do some hard work and learn more about food insecurity and how Inter-Faith Food Shuttle is fighting hunger in the Triangle.
At Cary Academy, sophomores’ curriculum has an emphasis on serving the community, so each year 10th graders go to various organizations in the Triangle to volunteer for a day – and on this occasion that meant getting their hands dirty on the Food Shuttle Farm.
Sungold tomatoes from the Food Shuttle Farm
The Cary Academy students were overwhelmed by how much they learned about food. One student, Erin, was particularly amazed by the Sungold tomatoes they harvested. “This is real food. There’s no GMO, no pesticides or anything. This is a real tomato.” While the students were snacking on apples, farm staff member Janny mentioned that they could save the cores and feed them to the chickens and goats. It was a simple lesson that, as one student noted, “everything can be used on a farm.”
Cary Academy has been a loyal partner of the Food Shuttle. Biology and Anatomy teacher MaLi Burnett has been a teacher at Cary Academy for seven years, and she said the school has been coming to Inter-Faith Food Shuttle since even before then. This dedication to Inter-Faith Food Shuttle does not go unnoticed or unappreciated!
Students from Cary Academy work on the Food Shuttle Farm
Durham Academy also puts an emphasis on volunteering in their community. Being located in Durham County, the school challenges its 8th graders to find a problem in their community and work towards fixing it. This particular group of 8th graders has partnered with Dame’s Chicken and Waffles to focus on cutting down on restaurant waste. Up to 40% of the world’s food is thrown away. Pair that with the fact that 1 in 4 children are hungry, and it makes these students’ work even more important.
They chose to volunteer at the Geer Street Garden as part of this project, as way to learn more about building a more sustainable, local food system in Durham.
Durham Academy students work at the Geer Street Learning Garden
We love having schools involved in our programs, as the youth of today will be the ones shaping conversations and policy about and around food in the future. Keep up the good work Cary Academy and Durham Academy!
If you have a school that would like to join the fight against hunger, email info@foodshuttle.org to find out how you can get involved.