June 15 - Succession Planting, Pineapple Sage Tea and more

Students enjoyed a class at the gardens of Project Hope. It was on “succession planting” taught by Ella. The students then went out side to weed. It was a hot day but we all survived and ended with a Taco dip using garden corn and fresh cilantro from the herb garden. The drink for todays’class was a pineapple sage ice tea made from the herb garden at project hope and sweetened with home grown stevia.

June 9 - Maryville Farmers Market

Project Hope students and volunteers visited the Maryville Farmers Market. They were able to talk to the venders, compare prices, ask them questions on their gardening and homemade produce. They ended with a lesson in Stevia which is grown in their green house and taste some home made cookies and brownies made with homemade Stevia . Fun and educational day.

Community Clean-up Day!

June 3rd Project Hope participated in the Saturday Joint Hall Community Cleanup Day. They ended at the community garden that project hope mainten to keep the garden plentiful.

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May 18 Watermelon Radish & more.

Project Hope we started with a lesson on planting taught by Ella, the students then tasted a turkey vegetable meatball all from the garden.Broccoli, kale, carrots and 3 herbs from new herb garden.

They went outside under the guidance of Logan, Nancy, Ella and Sissy to plant and weed. Logan Hill explained what activities they will be doing for the day. Mr. Hill dug holes for the students to plant more vegetables. Students also learned about Watermelon Radish.

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May 11 - Planting New Vegetables and more.

Today the students under the direction of Nancy Neilsen, Laura and John worked hard planting new vegetables and weeding in the Project Hope Gardens. They ended the morning with a taste of chocolate chip cookies made using homemade stevia.

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May 5 - Soil Lesson, Testing goodies & Planting

Project Hope students started with a lesson by Ella on soil. Followed by a test testing of kale chips, Herb rosemary cookies, rosemary herb taken from the new indoor herb garden, smoothies with fresh fruit and kale . The students then went outside to work in the new high tower green house and planted tomatoes and flowers.

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April 20 - Plants & soil, Bank Accounts, and Donors

The students started today with a class taught by Ella on Soil and Plants. Some of the students went to the bank to open accounts. The memorial for my dear friend Cookie Zappa was finished today. Thank you to all who helped and donated, Bill Cochran, Zappa family, Co-op of Maryville and Eli a student with project hope and Nancy Nelson and myself finished it today. We planted over 15 herbs today in the Project Hope garden.

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2024 Project Hope Begins

April 6, 2024 represents the first meeting for the Project Hope students and volunteers. At this meeting, we got a chance to learn about each other as the project volunteers talked about their work and volunteer experiences and why they are participating in the program. The students introduced themselves and their grade level at Alcoa Middle. This the bonding time for establishing an in-the-garden relationship as we plant, weed and grow a variety of vegetables this season. We have five (5) new students joining the returning 5 students. This will be a good mix of experience and learning students and will allow for our experienced students to provide leadership and assistance of our new students.

We talked about the overall program that will consist of gardening and learning about financial literacy (savings and stocks).

After a delicious waffle breakfast made with zucchini and/or apple by Chef Rosemarie, we talked about the ingredients and how we should be willing to taste (try) different foods because we are "scientists"!

We are off and running...looking forward to growing a lot of produce for our senior citizens!

We also did a review of the gardens and greenhouse. Talked about weeds and they seem really excited to the upcoming garden season adventures!

Above: Picture 1: John DiDeigo volunteer from Tremont is educationing the students about compost and the nourishment of the compost for the soil for planting your harvest.

Picture 2 & 3: Tungsten and twin brother Tokgnar joins Project Hope. They enjoyed the activities today.