Ten schools from around the province learned that they have won a share of a $100,000 grant for their student nutrition projects and one of those schools is Moose Jaw's own Peacock Collegiate.
 
The Mosaic Extreme School Makeover challenge accepts submissions for a share of the grant money each year, for improvements and enhancements to pre-existing nutrition programs.
 
During the submission process, Peacock principal Dustin Swanson said it was a committee that determined which projects to highlight in their application and the learning garden was key. The school then submitted its application, highlighting wishes to expand their existing school garden and integrate their garden-grown ingredients into educating students on nutrition and cooking.
 
And with the announcement that they placed in the top 10 across the province, means they will receive $10,000 and the school's learning garden expansion and enhancements will be a reality.
 
As laid out in their application, Swanson says that the plan is to use the money in two primary ways,"We have a learning garden, a full-service kind of food program out there, and so we are going to expand that by the creation of a small greenhouse and we are looking to make that a year-long program where we're actually doing some work with some solar heat, and some solar power, and construction of a water source."
 
On top of the renovations to the garden itself, there's plans for kitchen ware to expand the preparation and preserving of the garden ingredients.  Swanson said, "It gives us a way to further enhance that. A simple example, we're looking forward to purchasing some canning equipment and some soup pots and equipment that we can use to create soup. We do a lot of root vegetables in the garden, so we are going to incorporate that into some of the classes that we have here."
 
"Right now, what happens with the garden program is that we have students, staff, and elementary students from across Moose Jaw come to our school. We plant a garden, we nurture it, and we go through that whole food production cycle, then we harvest in the fall and have a feast.  We have built that and integrated it into a lot of our programs in our school.  We also use it to teach nutrition, as well as provide some nutritious food options to students right here in the building.  So it's an educational piece and it's about nurishing the mind and nurishing the body, so we are very fortunate to have received the money and we are really excited to get going on the project."
 
Swanson added that the garden has become an integral part on so many levels and they are excited to build on what they already have and do to raise the standards for food service to the students of Peacock by providing healthy alternatives for snacks, lunches and also for special occasions by way of fresh produce.
 
The challenge has been made possible by the annual donation of $100,000 by Mosaic, who in partnership with the Saskatchewan School Boards Association, began the initiative in 2006 to encourage nutrition for students.