Needham Community Farm Ready to Break Ground

Since it came into being four years ago, the Needham Community Farm has helped create gardens on the grounds of four Needham elementary schools, cultivated a dozen different types of herbs and vegetables and donated the glut of its harvest to the Food Pantry.

But up until now, the farm has been missing a critical element: an actual farm.

“It’s been a four-year search for a piece of land,” said farm president Debbie Schmill.

The hunt is finally over. In early May, the nonprofit farm announced it had been awarded a license by the Needham Public Schools to start an environmental-education initiative at the Nike missile site off Pine Street in Needham.

Schmill said the farm had been looking for a home for two years when she broached the idea of using the site on Pine Street with Superintendent Daniel Gutekanst.

Because the site is owned by the , the farm had to apply through the request for proposal (RFP) process required by the state. Then the proposal had to be given the green light by the school department, the superintendent and the School Committee.

“It was perfect: Here’s this four-acre open space that has been sitting idle for years, and because it hasn’t been touched, there are no chemicals in the ground,” Schmill said. “It’s just this beautiful open space in the middle of the woods.”

Given the farm’s educational mission, the school department seems like an ideal landlord.

“What was important for the superintendent and the committee was that if we are going to lease school land, it needs to be for an educational purpose,” School Committee member Michael Greis said. “I think there is incredible value in outdoor learning, and learning about food, and the farm will provide lots of opportunities in those areas.”

The farm will offer curriculum-based education programs in partnership with the public schools, as well as after-school, summer and adult education programs on gardening and sustainable practices.

“It’s a natural fit, and fits what’s going on in system as a whole,” said Greis, who is also chairman of Green Needham.

While there is precedent for farm-education programs in nearby districts like Natick, which partners with the Natick Community Organic Farm, Greis explained that green partnerships already have deep roots in Needham.

In the past several years, the district has placed increasing value on environmental education and even received a grant last year to support these initiatives from the Environmental Protection Agency.

“We have a history of building collaboration in town, and the Needham Community Farm has been involved in those initiatives,” Greis said. “It’s clear they are working with the schools and putting together great ideas that fit our mission of citizenship and educating the whole child.”

Schmill said sustainable farming is a valuable addition to a well-rounded education.

“Hands-on learning is an essential and powerful, tool,” she said. “You have to connect with the soil to learn to care about the land.”

But time spent in the garden is no recess. Schmill said that throughout the cultivation process students have the opportunity to apply practical skills in math and science to real-life experiences.

“It’s extremely helpful for them to be able to conceptualize what they are learning in the classroom,” she said.

Mary Rizzuto, science curriculum specialist at the Needham Science Center, has been working with Schmill for the past two years, developing farm-based curriculum for kindergarten through fifth grade. Given that there are units on life cycles in the first grade, soils in second grade and insects in fourth grade, adapting lessons from the classroom to the garden seems natural. 

But Rizzuto explained that outdoor learning initiatives also give students a valuable sense of place.

“If you give them these intense experiences to be a part of the patterns of nature, to see relationships and interdependencies, they are much more likely to be stewards of that land and be active citizens in keeping the planet healthy,” she said.

Rizzuto pointed out that they have already seen results from the pilot garden programs at the elementary schools; the students at had the opportunity to enjoy the fruits of their labor in the cafeteria. 

“The kids were just so excited that what they had planted and harvested was on the table,” Rizzuto said. “There was a real sense of accomplishment and pride; a lot of times, kids don’t have that connection between the garden and their plates.”

This summer, Schmill said the farm and its partners will work on developing curriculum for higher grade levels, in time to begin lessons at the farm this fall. It will take a few years to transform the dirt at the site into nutrient rich soil, so they will begin by planting in raised beds.

The recently awarded a grant to the Needham Community Farm to help fund the summer curriculum as well as the 20 48-by-4-foot raised beds.

Every step of the way, Schmill said there will be many opportunities for volunteers to get their hands dirty. The farm is not a community garden—so no individual plots—but rather a place for people to learn about gardening in a community space.

Step one will be to build the beds. Schmill said there will be a Farm Build Day on Sunday, May 22, when the public is invited to come check out the site and help fill the beds with compost from 9:30 a.m. until late afternoon.

The event coincides with a two-day Revolutionary War , during which soldiers from the Brigade of the American Revolution will camp out and state mock battles at the adjacent .

“It’s not exactly going to be a peaceful day at the farm, but it’s good that there will be a lot going on,” Schmill said. “If people aren’t aware of the farm already, they will be after the 22nd.”