Salada Foods, the parent company of Jamaica Mountain Peak brand of coffees and teas, incorporated garden learning into its approach to literature education for Read Across Jamaica Day activities on Tuesday (May 7).

The company engaged children in three-dimensional learning at orchestrated an immersive literacy event at Jebb Memorial Basic School.

Salada Foods general manager Tamii Brown said, “It offers endless opportunities for learning and exploration; as quickly as the students stepped out of the classrooms and into the schoolyard, we recognised how it ignited their curiosity and stimulated their imaginations.” 

The activities kickstarted with Salada Foods’ quality assurance manager Nadine Francis leading a reading session with approximately 35 students between the ages of two and six, centred around a book of the Ready Steady Readers series titled, ‘The Little Red Hen and the Wheat’.

Following the story, Francis and the Salada Foods team facilitated a discussion with the students about their lessons learnt to encourage critical thinking. 

Salada Foods, together with the ESIROM Foundation, gifted Jebb Memorial Basic School with a raised garden plot, sparking excitement among the students and teachers alike.

The hands-on learning opportunity is not only aimed at fostering literacy skills, said Brown, “but is meant to cultivate a deeper understanding of their natural environment. It was truly a pleasure for our team to watch all the little ones participate, and partake in the reading and gardening activities alongside our sustainability partners at ESIROM.”

“With the sun’s rise tomorrow, we hope to see a renewed passion for growth among the children at Jebb. Today, we’ve witnessed the joy students experience from reading about living things, to every stage of gardening – from preparing the plot, to planting and even nurturing the seedlings. We want the raised garden plot to enrich their curriculum,” Brown added.

Prior to the visit, the children were provided with fudge sticks to craft labels for a diverse array of plants including herbs like rosemary, thyme, basil, fruit trees and sunflowers. Some of these plants were placed into the planter as part of the activities.

According to Jebb Memorial Basic School principal Leonie Salmon Wong-Sue, the addition of the garden will serve as a valuable resource for integrating literacy and even mathematics into experiential learning.

Wong Sue said, “Read Across Jamaica Day already provides a unique opportunity for our children to engage with books beyond the classroom curriculum, and today was certainly extra special with the playground and garden serving as a living classroom. Literacy should begin at home, from the moment a child can speak so by the time they transition into the school environment, they are ready for bigger activities but it isn’t always the case. These events always make that transition fun for all of us. We welcome the garden because it complements our curriculum for our four-year-olds who are learning about plants and farms.” 

“We would love to be able to take the children outside to learn every day or at least twice a week, but our school is in a noisy area. Nonetheless, it was a good learning experience and exposure for the children. In my role as principal, I have embraced Jebb Memorial as a historical institution, and I believe that when conceptualisers leave a legacy, it is our responsibility to nourish and build upon it. That’s what Salada Foods can expect our teachers and students to do with the garden,” she continued.

By harnessing the power of the outdoors, Salada Foods aims to cultivate a literate, environmentally-conscious generation.