A recent Lake Trail Community School field trip taught students all about sharing the harvest.
Wednesday’s (Sept. 22) beautiful fall weather allowed Jeffery Hoy’s class to make good on a letter his students sent out to area residences recently.
The students wrote personal request letters to several nearby homes, asking for permission to glean their fruit trees.
On Sept. 22, Hoy led the students to a home on 3rd street, where the class spent about an hour picking apples, mainly to be used in the school’s breakfast program. The students will continue to collect apples from area homes for the next couple of weeks. Hoy will then take the apples to a local pressing company (Pressing Matters) to be turned into juice.
This is the second year Hoy has done this with his homeroom students. In 2020, the fruit they collected produced approximately 100 litres of juice. They are hoping to get the same, if not more this year. Any juice that is not used in the breakfast program is sold to staff as a fundraiser for the school.
Hoy said the idea came to him based on his own observations.
“I saw a lot of apples going to waste in people’s yards, and thought there has to be a good way to put this to use,” Hoy explained. “Our school district has been working towards more community engagement, so it’s a really good way for our students to get to know their neighbours and the neighbourhood.”
Hoy and his students go door-to-door, delivering the request letters, and based upon response, they return with pickers and bins, to glean the fruit - mainly apples and pears.
“We blanket just about every house in the area, with the letters,” he said. “We’ve mainly targeted the Old Orchard the last two years, but anywhere we can walk to, we will go.”
“I think it’s a good project, especially for kids who can’t get a good breakfast in the morning, since we are giving it to them,” said Farran Pierce, one of the students involved. “It’s good to help out our classmates, and picking apples is fun.”
Hoy said if anyone wants to contribute to the program, it would be best to contact him via his email, at Jeffery.Hoy@sd71.bc.ca
Also… VIDEO: Lake Trail Community School principal gives a guided tour of new facility
terry.farrell@comoxvalleyrecord.com
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