MARCH 2020 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC


New location for Langley’s spring


break Farm Camp Partnership with local schools boosts agriculture awareness


by RONDA PAYNE


LANGLEY – A new location is enhancing a five-year old program organized by Langley Environmental Partners Society (LEPS) that helps elementary school students understand where their food comes from and the value of farming. Farm Camp began in 2015 and was most recently held at Laurica Farm in Langley, but the property has been put up for sale following a fire in 2016 that destroyed the owners’ farmhouse. The popular spring break event is moving this year to The Funny Farm, a Langley hobby farm that hosts a range of social programs. “(The owners) were


introduced to us at the end of last year,” says Nichole Marples, executive director with LEPS. “They’ve offered us the opportunity to use the site. There are a lot of charitable [and] social programs that run out of the farm.” Kids aren’t likely to feel any


impacts from the change and Marples expects this year’s camp, which runs March 23- 27, will be well-attended. She says one of the on-site animal caretakers, Jackeline Dawson, will have the campers, aged six to 12, feed, brush and clean up after the site’s animals. But Farm Camp isn’t


focused only on animals. “The farm itself is five acres.


The family owns the 35 acres that surround it, so there’s forest and a creek,” she explains. “There will be lots of different eco activities – learning about bees and beekeeping, planting a garden bed.” Farm Camp grew out of the success of Nature’s Classroom, a program for students in grades three through seven, that’s now in its 10th year. It takes place at the Langley demonstration garden at the Derek Doubleday Arboretum. Operated in partnership with the public school system, it typically hosts classes in grades three to five in the spring and grades five to seven in the fall. “It’s learning about what it


takes to produce food,” Marples says. “They learn about soil, they learn about photosynthesis, they learn about seeds.” Kids plant seeds and tend to the garden in their visits every two weeks for 12 weeks in the spring and six weeks in the fall. “They participate in hands-


on workshops that teach them about plants, planting, imported food, local food. We talk about pollination,” she says. “They learn where our food comes from, how it grows from a seed and how it gets to our plate.” This food system education also had a social component


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Who knew a ladybug could be so special? Langley school children are likely to learn why at a Farm Camp organized by the Langley Environmental Partners Society during spring break this month. RONDA PAYNE PHOTO


in that the harvest goes to local non-profit organizations like the Langley Food Bank and Gateway of Hope. “If schools have a garden on their property and want to have more learning on their property, we are looking at them coming to the demonstration garden a couple of times and being at the school to use that infrastructure,” she says. “We also have a full curriculum that teachers can use themselves on their site.” Marples notes that the new Langley Learning Farm at the arboretum will make it possible for the Nature’s Classroom program to expand into local secondary schools. Programs scheduled to launch at Langley Secondary in 2020/2021 school year are currently under development.


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