Community Service Gets Sustainable
At Uncle Matt’s Organic, we like to practice what we preach! One of our key missions, aside from producing the highest quality organic juice in the market, is to grow and educate a healthier generation through organic farming. Where’s the best place to start? With the youngsters, of course!
Our team visited a local middle school in Groveland, Florida, where we helped students build an edible garden using all things organic. While we visited, Uncle Matt shared with the students the importance of organic farming for both growing the most nutritious produce and for benefiting a healthier planet.
We laid the foundation for the garden including three dedicated garden beds filled with nutrient-dense organic soil and compost. From there we arranged the plants making sure the larger growing plants, like tomatoes, had plenty of room to take root and flourish. The students got in on the action planting veggies and herbs – learning how to grow food themselves! They planted zucchini plants, hot peppers, basil, rosemary, parsley and more! It was a fantastic hands-on learning experience for these students to take part in the fun and get their hands dirty.
The kids were especially excited to take part in the flower garden, too! Did you know? Flowers attract pollinators like bees and butterflies, which pollinate the food we eat. The students were lucky enough to see a butterfly land on the flowers right after they were planted.
Now the middle schoolers are tasked with maintaining the vegetable garden; meaning a daily watering routine and picking the produce once it’s fully grown. Think they can do it? We know they can! Last year, we helped another local middle school with an edible garden and recently learned their garden is still booming!
When it comes to educating young minds, we don’t stop at a certain age. Ben McLean III, Uncle Matt’s Head of Research, and Benny McLean, Uncle Matt’s Production Manager, celebrated Earth Month by showing Valencia College’s Sustainable Agriculture class around our organic grove. As local citrus growing experts, they shared with them the importance of soil health and the challenges the state of Florida faces with citrus greening. This was another great opportunity for students to learn from actual, real life citrus growers!
We believe it’s important to celebrate Earth Day every day, and Earth Month is a perfect time to let our efforts shine. We’re proud to support local projects for the positive impact they have on our next generation of growers and the sustainability of our planet. Positive change takes place one small step a time.
