During our spring break trip to Belize, ten Vermont Academy students worked with farm extensionists from Sustainable Harvest International-Belize to help rebuild a tree nursery in the Mayan village of San Benito Poite. The nursery had been damaged by storms and feral pigs, and many of the posts were rotting away. Julian Stolper, Aidan Therrian, Justin Yim and Matt Carras helped to harvest and carry back fresh wooden posts for the structure. Leslie Botey, Qwyen Austin, Cat Kaminsky and Maggie McKay, worked tirelessly to replant cacao, lime and other fruit tree seedlings. Yiwei Wang learned to use a machete to clear the brush away from the outer perimeter of the nursery, and Chris Iamonico was the hero of the day after figuring out how to get the staple guns working so that we could hang the new mesh and fencing. The rebuilding of this nursery means that more trees will be planted throughout this community for years to come. Lime, Soursop, and Canip are eaten and traded locally in the Maya villages of Belize and Cacao is sold for cash so that families can pay for the education of their children. We are grateful for the experience of living and working alongside the beautiful people of San Benito Poite and we look forward to doing more sustainability-focused community service in Belize in the years to come.

On February 7th, 2013 Mrs. Armiger took Mary Anderson and Wyeth Olmsted up to Montpelier to represent Vermont Academy's Sustainability committee at the Vermont Farm to School awareness day! There, we met Vermont farmers and Farm to School coordinators in hope of further developing our Farm to School program at VA. We first met at the Unitarian Church in Montpelier for a potluck to kick off the Farm to School awareness day! We saw the inner makings of a Farm to School website that will soon enable schools to post information about their Farm to School program as well as the local farms they receive produce from. We also helped narrow down 12 foods to be part of "Harvest of the Month". We learned a great deal about the Farm to School program and looked at ways to help them reach their goal of getting Farm to School into every school in Vermont by 2020. Next we headed to the state house for part two of the Farm to School awareness day! There we heard speakers from the department of agriculture as well as local students who shared their school's experience as part of the Farm to School program. It was an excellent day packed full of interesting insight, new ideas and great food! With the information we learned about Farm to School, we are one step closer to making Farm to School shift from fantasy to reality at Vermont Academy!

Each fall, Vermont Academy students join together with the Connecticut River Watershed Council for the annual Source to the Sea Cleanup.  This past Saturday (September 29th), the Outing Club led a noble march in the rain.  With work gloves and garbage bags in hand, the team headed down to the Saxtons River where they collected items that ran the gamut from plastic bottles, to baby strollers, to an old bed frame.  

Though the work was challenging, members of the Outing Club felt great afterward, knowing they helped make the river a healthier and more beautiful place for people and wildlife. Our visiting students from Spain got a chance to see deer tracks in the sand and remarked on the differences between the Vermont landscape and the one they are more familiar with at home.

Source to the Sea is part of a coordinated one-day cleanup of the rivers, streams and banks that make up the vast Connecticut River system. Thousands of volunteers of all ages and abilities head out to places of their choice all along the four-state watershed to clean the Connecticut River and its tributaries on foot or by boat.  For more information about the Connecticut River Watershed Council and its work, visit http://www.ctriver.org.

Food waste being weighed at the No Waste lunch

The focus was on environmental awareness and sustainability as Vermont Academy students and faculty joined together to compete in a "No Waste" luncheon at Thursday's community lunch. Classes and their respective advisors vied with each other to create the least amount of leftover food.

After eating, each plate was weighed to determine the amount of waste. That figure was then averaged over the number of students/faculty associated with that class. The 9th graders won with an average of 7.6 grams of waste. The 12th and 11th graders tied with an average of 9.5 grams, and the sophomores came in with 11.3 grams. The overall waste for all classes was 3251 grams of food, which is right around 7 lbs of food.

The "No Waste" luncheon was a project of the advanced placement environmental science class and was intended to bring awareness to the amount of food wasted globally. The community will be hosting these meals about once a month throughout the year.

Students glean corn at Harlow Farm for the Vermont Foodbank

Vermont Academy included a community service component in our orientation activities this year. Students worked in their advisor groups with one or two teachers on projects both on and off campus.

One group gleaned over 700 pounds of produce at a local farm that will be used to feed the hungry through the Vermont Food Bank. Other groups painted the fence at the Saxtons River Montessori School, cleaned up the inside and outside of the town Historical Society, weeded and trimmed the gardens in front of the elementary school and behind one of the community churches. Students stacked wood in a nearby town and cleaned up invasive species near the Connecticut River. One group cleaned out a crowded area in the yard of a neighboring elderly couple and another helped an area farmer with work around the farm. Two different groups walked along the river and picked up refuse along the way, bringing back loads of trash and even some parts of a car!

Groups on campus organized the supplies and equipment for the outdoors program, cleaned and readied the large fish tanks in the science area, worked on a new mountain bike trail, cleared the area near the ski jump, harvested some produce from the school's garden, and learned about the composting and egg producing programs on campus.

Late-returning students will participate in community service activities this weekend, by  either gleaning more produce for the hungry or helping with an event sponsored by the state visiting nurse association.