Muskoday school wins Mosaic Extreme School Makeover Challenge for second year
- Jeanelle Mandes | May 10, 2020
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Two years in a row, the Muskoday First Nation Community School has received the Mosaic Extreme School Makeover Challenge.
Principal Liza Brown said they are excited to be receiving this grant again to develop a community garden and teach traditional food practices.
“I’m really happy to know that we are chosen as [one of] the recipients,” she said. “We’re going to definitely be making alternative plans at this time [due to Covid-19] for how we’re going to deliver that. We’re going to connect our students to topics like food sovereignty, gardening, working with the Elders and preservation with the foods [we harvest].”
With school closures due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the school team is thinking of alternative ways to include the students when the gardening project kicks off.
“We’re going to plan alternatively…and adjust the plan,” she said. “The school is going to do some gardening and flower beds around the school…but practice social distancing and take videos and document it that way to share with our students.”
The Muskoday Community School Coordinator Rhonda Bear said their school has been applying for the Mosaic grant for the last 4-5 years. Last year was their first time receiving the grant which was a total of $10,000 and had put it to good use.
“I’m very happy that we received this again,” said Bear. “Last year’s project, we did a lot of in class gardening. We bought new equipment that we needed for . We did after school baking clubs with each grade which they really enjoyed healthy and traditional food preparation. We took the kids out to Montreal Lake for ice fishing and we had community fish frys’.”
Schools from across the province submitted their projects to compete for the total of $100,000 in prizes, provided by Mosaic.
According to a prepared statement, the grants will support winning projects that have goals including building or renovating kitchen, garden and other indoor and outdoor facilities; enhancing, through courses, clubs and other efforts, the learning opportunities available for students, families and communities about topics including nutrition, cooking, Indigenous traditional knowledge and environmental sustainability; promoting reconciliation and celebrating cultures; and, implementing or increasing breakfast, lunch and other programs.
“The success of this program grows year over year, thanks in large part to the commitment from educators in our province,” said Sarah Fedorchuk Mosaic Vice President, Public Affairs & Government Relations in a media release. “Now, in its 14th year, Mosaic remains committed to funding the Mosaic Extreme School Makeover Challenge to ensure 10 more schools can provide healthier school environments for their students.”
Ten schools in Saskatchewan will each receive a $10,000 grant to support student nutrition after being selected to win
Schools receiving this year’s Mosaic Extreme School Makeover Challenge grants are; the Good Spirit, Greater Saskatoon Catholic, Horizon, North East, Prairie South, Regina Catholic, Saskatchewan Rivers, Saskatoon Public and South East Cornerstone school divisions and the Muskoday First Nation.
To encourage grassroots initiatives to help improve student nutrition, the Mosaic Challenge began in 2006.