HFHK participates in Philadelphia Science Festival Carnival
We spread our message that vegetables are delicious, an important part of a healthy lifestyle and easy to grow at this year’s Philadelphia Science Festival Carnival organized by the Franklin Institute.
The Science Festival is an annual, week-long celebration of science education and outreach which culminates in the Science Carnival on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway held in early May. HFHK was invited by FMC Ag Solutions, the Festival Presenting Sponsor for 2019, to plan and staff one of their six booths which all focused on the role that Ag Science plays in every day life.
Can you guess the mystery veggie?
HFHK’s booth consisted of a produce stand stocked with fresh vegetables that most people are familiar with like lettuce, carrots, and broccoli, and some not-so common vegetables like broccoli rabe and leeks for our Veggie IQ game. Volunteers challenged festival goers to name all the vegetables in the produce stand. If they got everything correct, we brought out the bonus vegetable which stumped everyone. (See the picture below and see if you can name it. Hint: it’s bigger than a turnip.)
Activities for All!
Volunteers also helped festival goers make seedling pots out of recycled newspaper and gave away seeds of our quick growing, cool seasonvegetables like arugula, spinach and lettuce that are the mainstay of our school gardens. The booth was a huge hit with festival goers; seasoned gardeners were asking HFHK volunteers for gardening advice and swapping gardening stories and new gardeners were excited by the idea that they could grow vegetables on their windowsill or patio at home.
Thank you to FMC and our volunteers
HFHK thanks FMC Ag Solutions for the invitation to participate in an amazing day and for their help to produce the lettuce, arugula and other crops that we used to demonstrate the way our HFHK school gardens work. We would also like to thank the University of Delaware Departments of Nutrition and Dietetics and Plant and Soil Sciences for providing additional volunteers to staff the booth.