Students in Mr. Toby Schroeder’s EASYPRO course harvested Fall vegetables and herbs last week.  The tomatoes, pumpkins and basil were brought to the Edison kitchen, where they were cleaned by our young gardeners and prepared for lunch on Friday by our cafeteria staff.  All harvesters were trained and certified to harvest, select and clean the food safely.  The garden, located near the Athletic Plaza on the Edison campus (the greenest campus in the state of MN), was planted and maintained by Edison students and our partners from SparkY. 

EASYPRO stands for Edible Agriculture School Yard Garden Professional and it is part of Edison’s new LEAF (Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Agriculture, Future) program; the LEAF program consists of a series of hands-on Science, Business and elective courses, as well as service projects and community internships, all centered around the theme of sustainability.  Students in the LEAF program are preparing for the Green jobs of the future while engaging in real world sustainability experience.

In partnership with MPS Nutrition services, food from the garden is prepared by cafeteria staff and served to Edison students at lunch.  The chefs in our kitchen think creatively to deviate from the published menu in order to incorporate whatever can be harvested on a given day.