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  • Nourish Champions

Meet Zach

At NourishFest, we were lucky to have the garden clubs from Admiral Westphal and Caledonia Junior High run a pH experiment in the Grow Eat Learn Zone. Zach was one of the club reps at NourishFest! He is a garden club leader at Admiral Westphal Elementary, as well as an awesome scientist. He helps oversee the hydroponic units that the school has in each classroom, allowing students to learn how plants and food grow all through the school year. We sat down with him and got to know a little bit more about his thoughts around gardens and food at schools.  

What’s your favorite thing to grow or cook or something you’d love to try one day?

Strawberries. We are trying to grow one, but it failed to make a berry this year but hopefully next year. Strawberries are cool. At my place, we’ve found one normal and one wild strawberry that we didn’t even plant. 

Do you have a favorite memory about school gardening?

When we sold all the plants at the junior high last year. It was a holiday craft fair. I just grabbed plants and went to people, and I came back with money. They were all the plants that we grew in the hydroponics and moved into pots.  with her.

How do you think youth can make a difference when it comes to food and how we eat?

Um, we could change the [school food] recipes completely- and make it so that kids get to cook it- and put the food on plates so it looks nice to eat.

What would a new recipe be for this school lunch program that you would like to see?

Good hot pizza with equal amount of toppings and crust, mashed potatoes and spaghetti.

If you could wave a magic wand and change one thing about food in Nova Scotia, what would you make happen?

Everybody has fresh food. Food from the garden.

What’s your favorite thing about school garden club?

It’s fun! It’s fun! I get to go to places and do more stuff that normally people won’t be able to do in schools.