The 5th grade students at SA have been exploring ways to build, promote, and run a sustainable Farmers’ Market for the community. By first analyzing the systems integral to building a business as part of their year long Sustainable Business unit, students strategize about how to make a big impact by thinking about the triple bottom line: profit, people, planet. In their own words; “We aim to raise money to help people in our community to buy groceries, to help our class pay for buses for school trips, and to leave a gift for the SA students once we leave” says Hazel.
Students host the Farmers’ Market monthly which gives them time to make all sorts of products to sell. This month the market featured pickles from local cucumbers, cinnamon apple sauce featuring apples from local orchards, as well as sun dried tomatoes and fresh picked flowers from the SA garden. They look forward to selling block prints and screen printed bags and shirts from art class, and the hottest item of all – fresh churned ice cream.
Students structure the market to fit the needs of all in the community: “We are trying to find a reasonable price for the food we are selling. We try to charge less, but we can’t charge too little because we have to pay for things. We want people to be able to afford it, but we also want to raise enough money to cover our costs and give back to our community”, says Annabell. “My great aunt doesn’t have venmo, so she only uses cash. We price things so that anyone could get 2 or 3 things.” says one student.
Ellie followed up by saying, “Everyone can come and buy something. It happens right at pickup. Parents don’t need to miss work” Annabell explained the purpose of the market in greater detail, saying “We are the Sustainability Academy- it is in our mission to make change and help people in our community.”
Other parts of this year-long project include reading the Young Readers Edition of Ominvore’s Dilemma by Michel Pollan, drafting a mission statement for the market and visiting the Interval Community Farm. The next community Farmer’s Market is coming this October. Stay tuned and the 5th grade class would love to have you stop by!
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