Courtesy photo.
VENTURA COUNTY — Kids and their families participating in SEEAG’s “Let’s Grow A Garden” home garden program picked up donated potting soil from Agromin and vegetable seedling from Plantel Nurseries last week. More than 1,000 4-quart bags of potting soil and over 3,000 seedlings were distributed at Agromin’s Oxnard headquarters and at Ventura County elementary schools.
“Our busiest day was Earth Day,” says Caitlin Case, program director at Students for Eco-Education and Agriculture (SEEAG). “Thank you to Agromin and Plantel Nurseries for making the giveaway possible. Now, the students can get to work planting, caring for and harvesting their vegetables including kale, lettuce, tomatoes, bell peppers, Brussels sprouts, broccoli and cauliflower.
Beside the giveaways at Agromin, SEEAG handed out potting soil and seedlings to students at Norma Harrington Elementary School in Oxnard and Pierpont Elementary in Ventura. It also mailed over 250 packets of organic seeds to 126 recipients across the Central Coast with the help of The Plant Good Seed Company in Ojai.
It’s not too late for kids to participate in SEEAG’s Let’s Grow A Garden. They can access gardening tips and fun garden-related activities by going to the website, https://www.seeag.org/letsgrowagarden2021. Students can enter photos of their garden with a chance to win garden-themed prizes. A Hass avocado tree was given away last week courtesy of Brokaw Nursery.
Beginning May 3, nutrition and agriculture program lessons will be posted weekly on SEEAG’s website with new lessons added every Monday. The site also contains Information about local agriculture and links to where families can order seeds and gardening materials online.
“A garden brings families together. It’s an outside activity where the entire family can participate,” says Case. “It teaches kids that their hard work and patience can pay off with tasty, healthy home-grown vegetables that they can proudly share with their family.”
No registration is required. Let’s Grow a Garden is for elementary school teachers, students and their families. For more and access lessons, go to https://www.seeag.org/letsgrowagarden2021. To learn about SEEAG, go to www.SEEAG.org
About SEEAG — Founded in 2008, Students for Eco-Education and Agriculture (SEEAG) is a nonprofit organization that aims to help young students understand the origins of their food by bridging the gap between agriculture and consumption through its agricultural education programming. SEEAG’s “The Farm Lab” program teaches schoolchildren about the origins of their food and the importance of local farmland by providing schools with classroom agricultural education and free field trips to farms. Its Child Wellness Initiative in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties educates, inspires and empowers children to eat healthy by adding locally grown fruits and vegetables to their diet to help ward off childhood obesity that could lead to diabetes. Through these and other SEEAG programs, over 60,000 elementary school students in Central and Southern California have increased their understanding of the food journey. SEEAG also holds Farm Days in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties each year where local farms open their doors to the public. For more information, visit www.seeag.org or email Mary Maranville at mary@seeag.org