Dear Partners and Volunteers of Pinewood,
Last spring we received a grant from Blue Cross/Blue Shield to fund the next steps of our
gardening project: broadcasting the nutrition message to our students and their families.
As we all know, childhood obesity rates are soaring, and we want to use our gardens to
engage students in forming healthy eating habits from an early age. In order to expose the
children to a variety of fresh, local produce, we are teaming up with our cafeteria staff to
highlight a Fruit and Vegetable of the Month. Students will share information on the Monday
morning news, through a poster contest, during monthly lessons and seasonal plantings, as
well as tastings and cooking demonstrations (a HUGE thanks to Wendy Strickland and our
school secretary, Sandy Cintron, for the pepper demonstration last week!). There are several
ways in which we could use your help:
- planting fall/winter crops with students (the end of this week through next week; usually
from 1:30-2:30 in the afternoons)
- creating a Fruit & Vegetable of the Month display in the cafeteria
- donating rewards/incentives for students who track and turn in their fruit/veggie
consumption charts
- helping with monthly tastings & cooking demonstrations
- manning a table at the Fall Festival (Oct. 20) as PTA sells our garden products (pepper
vinegar, pepper jelly, pesto, and sofrito)
- recruiting local representatives from the food industry (local markets, restaurants, grocery
stores, and businesses such as Chiquita) to present to the students
Please email me if you are interested in any of these!
We greatly appreciate your support.
Laura Handler
Math Facilitator
Pinewood Elementary School
805 Seneca Place Charlotte, NC 28210
980.343.5825 (p) 980.343.5852 (f)
http://schools.cms.k12.nc.us/pinewoodES
