The Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind (VSDB) Foundation and Allegheny Mountain Institute (AMI) have partnered together on an event to raise awareness related to the educational benefits of urban gardening and its impact to our schools and local community. The first annual “Farm to Table” dinner will be held on Saturday, August 22^nd at the AMI Urban Farm at VSDB.
For additional information, please contact: Ellen Butchart  [email protected]

The dinner will feature produce grown by AMI staff and fellows at the educational farm on the VSDB campus, along with local beef, lamb, and locally sourced beer and wine.  There will be live music and tours of the farm. This event will highlight the benefits of utilizing gardening as a teaching platform and emphasize that healthy fresh produce can help transform dietary options in our school cafeterias. Currently, VSDB students use the farm as a garden classroom where they learn the science of growing food and the aspects of healthy nutrition, as well as learning to cook, to grow plants, and to operate their own mini-farmers’ market on campus.  Produce harvested at the AMI Urban Farm is served just a few steps away in the VSDB cafeteria, where students experience vegetables they have seen growing in the garden as a part of their daily meals.
In addition, the AMI Urban Farm has partnered with the VSDB CROPS program, which incorporates curriculum models in business and math with hands-on growing experience.  This winter, students created a business model requiring them to purchase all the materials and equipment needed to grow seedlings.  They established a budget and were responsible for contacting customers to solicit orders.  Once orders were received, the students procured the items to complete the orders.  The AMI Urban Farm and other community members purchased the seedlings grown and the classroom project was a success!
The “Farm to Table” dinner is a community event!  Diners will have the opportunity to meet the AMI staff and fellows working on food access projects throughout the region. Community members will also have the opportunity to record their own memories of gardening in the Virginia Oral History tent.  Please join us for an evening of great local food and drink and terrific music!
Tickets can be purchased at Black Swan Books, Young’s True Value Hardware, and Bookworks.