Mainland Regional High School,
Linwood, NJ
Post Crasher Victory Garden
Post Crashers is a service-learning club with students in grades 7-12, from two difference schools - Northfield Middle School and Mainland High School. We also engage other service-learning clubs in our projects - Boy Scouts, Key Club and Ecology Club. Post Crashers honors veterans by refurbishing the American Legion Post 295 and combats poverty, addresses food security, nutrition and agriculture by creating and expanding a sustainable victory garden at our local American Legion Post 295. We address food politics and education by creating “how to” videos and broadcast these on our local channel to promote homes to create backyard gardens on their own in these troubled times. We will also assemble groups of volunteers to go out and help build these individual backyard gardens.
Our Atlantic County LEADS the NATION in job losses and foreclosures. Yes we are #1, not a place anyone wants to be. A total of 9,900 jobs were lost this year with four casinos closing and another 3,300 will lose their jobs with the pending closing of the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City. Atlantic City, the biggest city in our county, is on the verge of bankruptcy. The county also has earned the dubious title "New Jersey's least healthy.” 48,716 people live in poverty in Atlantic County (20%). 47% of our county’s youth receive free or reduced lunch. Close to 17,000 of our youth live in poverty. Our youth are obese or starving because they do NOT get the right nutrients. We need to be healthier. We need to pull together as a COMMUNITY and get back our groove! This project helps our county grow fresh produce for those in need (local veterans in need and the local food bank). But more importantly, through out social media outreach programs, we will make gardening a national phenomenon. The garden provides a self-replenishing source of food for the hungry in Atlantic County, NJ as well as a community of service, meaning getting our 270,000 people inspired to help each other.
We are in our second year of service. Last year we held nine Post Crashes where we refurbished the American Legion Post 295 and built a victory garden that grew 500lbs of produce for those in need. This year we are continuing our refurbishment and doubling the garden. We will expand the garden by adding six to nine beds (currently there are nine). We will build a hydration system to sustain the garden. We plan on having at least 7 crashes to refurbish the post and expand the garden and beautifying the backyard. The Post not only serves as a meeting place for our community veterans, but also a community center for everyone in Northfield and the surrounding area.
Students learn how to garden, grow and maintain plants in the greenhouse. All students learn about food insecurity and that 1 in 5 of their peers live in hunger (It actually is 1 in 4 in our county). Students learn how the food bank operates and how they serve Atlantic County. Students learn about environmental issues plaguing our planet. Students learn about bio intensive gardening, collective farming and a community food system. Students learn blogging, video production and social media avenues. All students work side by side with veterans and learn about their service for our country
Our Victory Garden and Post refurbishment is unique because this project expands Northfield and Mainland students’ knowledge of our veterans and gives them one on one contact with veterans who share their knowledge of military service and the various wars in which they served. We tremendously benefit from this type of interaction, developing our appreciation of our military and what it means to be a productive citizen in the USA. The project also gives Northfield a much-needed community center that is near the school and parks.
The club’s “how to videos” will feature creating home gardens and community gardens that we will share with the 14,000 American Legion Posts and 7400 VFW Posts nationwide and local families. Victory gardens are synonymous with soldiers, America and community bonding. We want to recreate that message and make gardening a national phenomenon. The club will coordinate with the food bank, American Legion Post, city council to identify people in need that want a home garden, which the club will help build their garden. Each home garden that is 100 square feet will produce at least 230 salads for each family!
We held our first Post Crash of this year on 9/26/15. We planted shrubs and weeded the front garden of the American Legion Post 205. We collated papers for our disaster preparedness project and war dogs collection project. We harvested the last of the victory garden (35lbs for veterans and the food bank), ripped out all plants, moved the raised beds farther back so we can double the garden in the spring. We trimmed branches in the back yard and built picnic areas with mulch and railroad ties. Our subsequent crashes listed above will address refurbishing the Post and enlarging our victory garden. This grant funds our garden’s protection: a fence and pest control (lady bugs).
We will measure our impact by recording the number of volunteers for each event, by the number of events that occur at the Post compared to previous years, by the pounds of produce produced in the victory garden, and the number of gardens that grow as a result of our clubs’ support.
