Maple Ridge alternative school receives $3k to expand its garden

Steve Wiebe noticed the student’s eyes light up as they approached the garden. 

It was sometime in 2021, shortly after Connex, a transitional part-time school based in Maple Ridge, started a garden to address the growing number of students that were coming to school hungry. 

The school is for 15 to 18-year-olds who struggle functioning in a regular school setting. The classes are smaller and there’s a higher adult to student ratio. Oftentimes, though, students may still be less interested in doing stereotypical class work, said Wiebe, Connex’s principal. 

But on that summer day in 2021, when work on the garden began, a trio of youth who previously struggled in class flocked to wheelbarrows. Wiebe watched them move bark mulch around, build planter boxes, and nestle seeds in the ground. 

“All of a sudden, the three of them were just like, ‘Hey, we’re taking this on,’” he said. 

The school recently received a grant to expand the garden. 

Earlier this month, the Maple Ridge Community Foundation awarded Connex with a $3,000 grant to build an irrigation system for the garden. 

The grant will ensure the garden is watered during the summer months as well as long periods when the school is closed, according to a statement from Amy Pridday, marketing coordinator at the Maple Ridge Community Foundation. 

It’s the second donation that the community organization has given Connex. It previously provided the school with a $2,000 grant that helped launch the garden.  

With the money, Wiebe said he also hopes to expand the garden by three or five more planter boxes — especially on the south and northeastern sides of the building where there’s space and a lot of sunlight. 

There are currently about a half dozen boxes on site. The additional boxes would also allow the school to mix up its variety of plants, which currently consists of spaghetti squash, corn, and beans, among other plants. 

“If you plant certain things besides each other, like garlic next to potatoes, it attacks like a natural pesticide,” said Wiebe, adding the extra boxes would facilitate other symbiotic relationships within the garden.

Inspiration to build the garden was born out of a need to provide students with food, a growing issue plaguing many young people across the country. 

Recent research has shown about 40 per cent of post-secondary students in Canada are food insecure, a term used to describe someone with limited or uncertain access to food. 

But it’s not only older students that are suffering from food insecurity. In the fall, administrators on Galiano Island were seeking financial help to help school-aged children on the Gulf Island receive an adequate supply of food. 

Connex provides meals for students twice per day, and relies on many other community groups for food donations. But the generosity wasn’t enough. The school wanted to develop its internal food supply to ensure students wouldn’t go hungry if the outside support ever dropped off.

“We thought, long term, are these grants always going to be there?” Wiebe said. 

Before opening the garden, the school noticed a high volume of students and families who were struggling with food insecurity — some days the school needed to find food for up to 80 students. 

(The population of Connex fluctuates throughout the year as students are enrolled on an ongoing basis and can return to a regular secondary school when appropriate. Wiebe estimates the school currently has around 140 students.) 

Food from the garden is harvested any time from late-September to December. 

The garden has not only provided students with much needed food, it has also acted as an unofficial outdoor classroom where youth, some dealing with anxiety or depression, can learn about agriculture, sustainability, and culinary skills in an informal environment. 

“It’s just very, very soothing and helps self-regulate kids,” Wiebe said. “Sometimes staff will sit with kids. . . . They’re able to say, ‘Did you know this plant is used for this? Did you know you have to pack the earth around the bulb otherwise there’ll be an air pocket and it won’t grow?’” 

The success at Connex has led to similar gardens across the school district. In 2023, Maple Ridge Elementary opened its own outdoor garden to serve as an outdoor learning space to learn about agriculture and how to grow food. 

In the future, Wiebe said he hopes to build an indoor garden and strengthen the school’s Indigenous education. 

Connex grows sage, a plant with historical importance to Indigenous peoples in the area. Wiebe would love to expand those offerings with the school’s Indigenous support worker to educate students about the many different ways plants can benefit a community.  

“Sage, they use for cleaning, healing,” Wiebe said. “So not only are plants for food, but also for medicine.”