Feeding the Community with Hope Winterm 2009 Journal

Compass School and Our Place Drop-In Center Service Learning Project Journal entitled Feeding the Community with Hope, has been printed!

One of the great challenges in education is to figure out how to afford one's students the opportunity to work together to apply their learning outside school in a service-learning environment.  I am the luckiest teacher on the planet, as I work at a place that intentionally builds-in this type of experience to the yearly schedule, enabling us all to make an impact on the larger world. Compass is doing what most experts in education would argue is essential: inspiring a learning community that takes knowledge and skills developed in classes and help students apply their understandings and talents to real world problems.

Inspired by the Compass School student interest and with food and agriculture, I was motivated to collaborate with a local food-oriented organization, Our Place Drop-In Center, for our winter trimester known as 'Winterm'.  Winterm allows students from grades 7-12 to work in small groups with their peers, a teacher-leader, and a community organizer for two solid weeks.  I invited chef, gardener extraordinaire, and friend, Ana Porteur, to come and meet with me one morning at Compass, and together we hatched a strong partnership between our school and Our Place Drop-In Center in Bellows Falls, Vermont.

For two weeks, Our Place Community Kitchen and Day Shelter bustled with five additional volunteers. Imagine their small, warm kitchen jam packed with Compass students wielding vegetable graters, chopping knives and cutting boards.  For two weeks, Compass students and Our Place staff served friends from Vermont and New Hampshire with smiles and compassion. 

Please click on the link to read more student testimonials and see images from our 2-week project! Feeding the Community with Hope Winterm 2009 Journal!