Over…
…200 students and teachers
…250 fruit bushes planted
…5 facilitators, over 50 hours of training and delivery of educational sessions
…1 new edible garden established
…1 new composting station inaugurated.
The “Orchard School – we work with Nature!” project, funded by the Auchan France Foundation, is an educational and practical initiative, dedicated to HEALTHY AND ACCESSIBLE FOOD, WHICH DEVELOPS SOCIAL LINKS, implemented by the Mărțișor Community Garden in partnership with AMURTEL Romania and Auchan RETAIL Romania https ://www.facebook.com/auchan.ro.
The project runs from May 2022 to October 2023 and involves beneficiaries from Bucharest and Buzău – children, parents, teachers – and builds a bridge between 2 communities: urban Bucharest (especially the Marțișor Community Garden in sector 4) and rural Buzău (especially the community on the Buzău River valley, Poieni – Pănătău). We combine practical, educational and personal transformational activities for harmonious individual living in sustainable and resilient communities.
Last week, the “Orchard School” team held educational workshops at the 2 schools in Buzău county – from Chiojdu and Pănătău communes – which signed up to the project from the beginning. The supported activities covered the following topics:
-environmental ecology
-the ecology of the self
-community gardening – edible permaculture gardens
-preparing healthy and ecological food.
The secondary school from Chiojdu repopulated the garden with fruit bushes, whitewashed the trees and painted the flower boxes
Generous in size, the garden surrounding the school is now richer with several fruit bushes, whitewashed trees and flower boxes repainted in white.
Day 1 https://www.facebook.com/raznic.marian/posts/pfbid02w8poy3R2Qgu6LiSsip3hywtEa7XCRvJKNkqrNj71wvsnVXaAJ5KStaBxsUzaQQwCl
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid0tSSKG3XvR3UDGRZ6KLEsA4M3PTVwtRSzWaN7mYdZakExHatmPPi3JpLgwf4waQYQl&id=100090820809975
Day 2
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090820809975
https://www.facebook.com/raznic.marian/posts/pfbid02mSq647Yo25Yd4HWQDbhKLjHwEz3S3zZF1fQfhduen3PeGdU5d2QAHXa9JxL4PZnwl
Good luck with taking care of the garden, trees, flowers and new fruit bushes!
The kindergarten of Chiojdu’s secondary school also received a heart: the composting station
Of the 6 applications for Buzău, the one that received the most points was that of the CHIOJDU “CONSTANTIN GIURESCU” HIGH SCHOOL. Thus, we are rewriting the history of communities becoming regenerative.
During the event for the inauguration of the composting station, carried out by the same @Urban Cultor team, we learned who composts plant residues, why the micro and macro organisms in the soil are important, what plant residues can be composted in the community and how important is the resulting compost. Also called natural fertilizer or even “gardener’s gold”, the compost helps regenerate the soil and grow healthy plants and vegetables.
At the end, we added vegetable scraps from our own kitchens and from the garden (hay), we homogenized them with the aerator and we enjoyed the group photos together.
The benefits of local composting in the community are multiple:
– integrated practical learning with visible and satisfying results for everyone
– making the beneficiaries responsible for the team project to work well and permanently
– reducing the negative impact by reducing the storage in landfills or the burning of valuable plant residues, resulting from the care of gardens and the preparation of our food
– soil regeneration – the essential resource alongside air, water and forests/natural vegetation
– the production of fruits, vegetables and natural nuts that support our and nature’s health of which we are a part.
Good luck and increased care and patience in the production of compost for the continuous regeneration of the Earth!
Pănătău secondary school has a new edible garden
We were especially happy because, in addition to the fruit bushes that were planted next to the fence that separates the school yard from the beautiful Pănătău river, the town hall made a new space available to the school, right next to the school yard, which we transformed together in a garden of edible plants and flowers. We used materials that were considered waste (wood boards and used tires) to give them a new life in the form of raised layers that will support the growth and easy maintenance of plants.
Cheers to teamwork for taking care of the new garden, flowers and fruit bushes!
Grădina Bio Amurtel delivers vegetables weekly to 37 children at the AMURTEL Family and Fountain of Hope social centers
Starting this year, with the help of the Orchard School project, Grădina Bio Amurtel is making the transition from an intensive organic garden to a regenerative system. After a wave of attacks by various external factors on the seedlings, with the help of the 2 dedicated employees Cristina and Daniela, but also with the involvement of the students from the Faculty of Horticulture Bucharest, we are picking the first fruits – healthy vegetables reach the 37 children from the AMURTEL Family and the Fountain of Hope social centers with priority.
We thank the 2 schools, the 2 community centers next to Casa cu Blazoane and the Fountain of Hope, the partners and the team of facilitators!
Coming in 2023 as part of the “Orchard School” project
– In Bucharest: thematic, cherry-picking and care events in the orchard behind the Tudor Arghezi Memorial House museum managed by the partner National Museum of Romanian Literature and especially enjoyed by the local community the Mărțișor Community Orchard.
– In Buzău: the organization and implementation of the eco-educational camp at the Gradina Bio Amurtel Poieni.
Throughout the project we work with volunteers from the local community and students from the Faculty of Horticulture Bucharest, in events with practical activities in the orchard from Mărțișor – Bucharest and the vegetable garden from Poieni – Buzău.
We thank all the citizens and entities that support the project: AMURTEL Romania, Auchan Retail Romania, the National Museum of Romanian Literature, the Tudor Arghezi Memorial House, the Faculty of Horticulture Bucharest, the Bucharest Community Foundation, the Bucharest Community Orchard.
Details of the “The Orchard School – we work with Nature!” project partners:
https://www.facebook.com/LivadaComunitaraMartisor
https://www.facebook.com/groups/703363830929843
https://amurtel.ro/en/
https://legume-eco.ro/ro/cos-de-legume-bio/
https://www.facebook.com/auchan.ro
https://romania.auchan.ro/ro/continut/concurs-de-proiecte-sprijinit-de-fundatia-auchan-franta
https://mnlr.ro/case-memoriale/casa-memoriala-tudor-arghezi-martisor/
http://www.horticultura-bucuresti.ro/
