Shaome Cooperative dedicates raised-bed garden at Turner Woods Elementary
“As you can see, we're impacting these students, but we're also impacting their families and the community,” said Chelsea McClain, President & CEO of Shaome Cooperative.
GRAY, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – In Gray, children played in the dirt at Turner Woods Elementary, Thursday, for a good reason, to learn how to grow their own food.
Shaome Cooperative, an environmental non-profit organization whose mission is to create food security for families, by planting food forests and edible gardens in various areas, such as Heritage Elementary in Macon last year, also dedicated a raised-bed garden to Turner Woods Elementary continuing to encourage education.
“We, our North Star, is to make Georgia the first food secure state in the nation,” said Chelsea McClain, President & CEO of Shaome Cooperative.
“As you can see, we’re impacting these students, but we’re also impacting their families and the community,” said McClain. “You know, the ripple effect is huge on this. This one school will ripple out to thousands of people in just three years.”
(Photo Credit: Godfrey Hall/41NBC)
According to a press release this was also a part of Shaome Cooperative’s GROW (Growing with Real Organic Wisdom) program, with Turner Woods Elementary being first in Jones County to adopt the program, which is fully funded by The Bresse Family.
“Coming out here today and then I see these kids, it brings me back to the day when I would go jump in the dirt and do this and do that,” said Rusty Bresse, CEO of ScoreNavigator and also Sponsor of the program. “Now they’re doing something productive. So I know God put this on me for that reason and then to be able to see these kids, it’s just really enjoyable.”
(Photo Credit: Godfrey Hall/41NBC)
According to that same press release, Turner Woods Elementary is also a recipient of a Whole Kids Foundation Garden Grant, supporting supplies and integration of garden learning with the Georgia Standards of Excellence (GSE) across Science, ELA, Math, Social Studies, Health & PE, and Fine Arts.
“That food forest will be for the entire community,” said Keisha Pitts, Principal of Turner Woods Elementary. “These flower beds here are to teach children about growing and plants and seeds, and then not only seeing the plants that grow here, but to see an actual food forest where community, family, people, can come and get food as they need it. So that’s the most exciting opportunity about what can happen within the building and outside our school and help the community.”
“The future looks like all of the elementary schools in Georgia, having our curriculum and having a food forest and other places,” said McClain. “You know, we plant food forests in businesses and places of worship and anywhere that wants a food forest. An empty land, if a city wants to donate an empty spot to us, we’ll plant a food forest and let it go.”
Turner Woods Elementary School is located at 144 Willie L. Fluellen Drive in Gray.
For more information check out Shaome Cooperative’s website here.
