Foss High School will be a busy place Saturday morning, Oct. 17, as students and adults grab shovels and plant 39 fruit trees that will come in 10-gallon containers. One day these trees, obtained through a Fruit Tree Planting Foundation grant, will be used not only to teach students in a variety of subjects, but some of the harvest will be used to feed local communities.
Foss High School was awarded a fruit tree orchard grant from the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation’s “Fruit Tree 101” program, and students and volunteers will be planting 39 four-year-old fruit trees on Saturday, Oct. 17, at 9 a.m. at two locations on the Foss campus. A certified arborist will direct the plantings.
Students in the Foss ROTC program, Student Environmental Grants Appropriation (SEGA) students from Foss and Bellarmine Preparatory School and other students and adults will lend a hand to the planting on Saturday. One planting location will be on the top of the hill where the foreign language portables used to be, and the other will be on a slope near the school.
“In a one-hour session on Monday, Oct. 19, from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m., FTPF representatives will talk to students and staff members about how they can use the harvest to benefit Foss and the local community. It will also cover the ecology and economy of an orchard,” said Tim Ford, Foss history and art teacher, who is in charge of the planting. “We will have about 100 science students attending this session. In the future, our science students will prune, maintain and harvest the fruit trees which will include apple, pear and plum trees and a few other varieties.” Ford said the trees will come in 10-gallon containers and should produce some fruit next year.
“Fruit Tree 101” orchards are meant to provide public schools with an outdoor, edible learning environment that can be used to teach a variety of subjects, including sustainability, botany and biology.
Some schools are using the orchards to teach math, art and English as well. The harvest from the fruit trees is meant to provide an improved source of healthy produce for students as well as other learning opportunities, such as collecting and donating the harvest to local food banks to demonstrate charitable giving.
The FTPF orchard grant includes high-quality trees and shrubs, organic soil amendments if needed, orchard design work, after-care training and planting labor and expertise. The FTPF coordinates and complete all aspects of the planting and offers an educational experience for volunteers interested in learning more about tree planting and horticulture.
The FTPT is an award-winning international nonprofit charity dedicated to planting fruit trees and plants to alleviate world hunger, combat global warming, strengthen communities, and improve the surrounding air, soil and water. FTPF programs strategically donate orchards where the harvest will best serve communities for generations, at places such as public schools, city parks, low-income neighborhoods, Native American reservations, international hunger relief sites and animal sanctuaries. To learn more about the FTPT and the “Fruit Tree 101” program, click here.