School Starts for FEAST!

School is officially back in session, and FEAST classes have started back up. Our FEAST teams are so glad to have students return to the school gardens, amazed by how much everything grew while they were away for the summer. Students were excited to taste veggies from the garden at Back to School Events and see their FEAST teacher again. During their first FEAST classes, students harvested watermelons they had planted in the spring and compared them to watermelons from the store, unanimously preferring the flavor of the homegrown melons and excitedly saving the seeds to plant next year. They have harvested and tasted tomatoes, peppers, and green beans; dug up potatoes; planted fall seedlings;  and excitedly await the slowly ripening pumpkins. 

This school year brings many exciting new opportunities for the FEAST program. We are excited to expand our work at Asheville Middle School and Asheville High School, including supporting the growth of a new Agriculture program at AMS and creating opportunities for AHS and AMS students to collaborate with other schools, visit gardens, connect with younger students, and explore food related career pathways. We are also beginning a new partnership with Jones Elementary in collaboration with their new United Way Community School program, exploring the ways we can support their goals of developing gardens and how FEAST might look at their school. We hope to begin a similar exploration with Claxton Elementary as we work to realize our shared vision with Superintendent Dr Maggie Fehrman of FEAST programming happening on every Asheville City Schools campus.

Over the summer, the FEAST team had a few transitions, and we welcome new staff while saying farewell to Natalie (Hot Springs Elementary) and Liz (Isaac Dickson Elementary), who both have exciting new chapters ahead of them.