Montrose School Creates Student-Run Farm

Editor's Note: The following article appeared in the June 2011- Volume 99, Issue 5 edition of The Columbian, the student newspaper of Columbia High School.

By Laura Marino, Columbia High School Junior, The Columbian Staff Writer

Photo by Raiesah Ramjan, Columbia High School Senior

The organic food craze is currently hitting the Maplewood/South Orange community hard. Luckily, a group of students at Montrose, along with the help of advisor Smita Dharsi, have a solution to the growing demand in the two towns for organic produce; they have created a sustainable organic garden and corresponding business model called “Trose Organics.” Interest in the program was high and plans for the project began quickly.

The business is run as a part of a bigger program called “Roots and Shoots,” a network founded by celebrated animal behaviorist Dr. Jane Goodall. According to the Roots and Shoots website, its principal aim is to “make positive change happen—for our people, for animals and for the environment.”

The program encourages students to design their own projects as a way of learning more about the areas they are interested in, and this group of students thought that creating an organic garden would be the best use of each person’s talents. “It was something everybody could do and everybody could be a part of,” said Nafeesah Armour, ‘12.

The plans for the garden became a reality with help from a grant from the ACHIEVE foundation, an organization dedicated to supporting educational ventures such as Trose Organics. Because the group received the grant in December 2010, the students were not able to begin their garden for a few months.

“It was hard to get started at first because we were going into winter,” said Sean Damor, ‘13. “During that time, though, we planned out what we were going to do next.”

Once garden production began, students managed the garden from the beginning steps onward, to ensure that each student experience each aspect of production. “We each did a little of everything,” said Armour.

The group got the invaluable opportunity to present their project and business model to Dr. Goodall on April 9, 2011 at the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City. The Roots and Shoots organization receives information about each project created and uses that information to select especially promising ideas to be presented to Goodall—and Trose Organics was one of the projects selected.

“[The presentation] was nerve wracking at first, but I overcame it,” said Damor. “It was a very inspirational experience because I had never met someone so famous before. Jane Goodall is such an icon.”

Although the garden itself is almost fully developed, the business aspect is still in its beginning stages. Dharsi is excited by the numerous possibilities that the business presents.

“In addition to gardening, the students [can learn about] marketing and advertising as well,” she said. “Who knows where this will go in the future.” The project’s long-term goal is to form partnerships with local businesses, such as Whole Foods and Eden Gourmet as well as to begin serving Trose Organics products in the CHS cafeteria.

“We’re starting very small right now,” said Dharsi. “It’s just the bare bones, but we hope to do much more with it.”

Dharsi attributes a great deal of the success of the garden to the students’ willingness to get involved. “I would have had more trouble getting people involved at Columbia because of all of the other activities going on over there,” she said.

However, as it was, the idea for the project was generated and executed quickly. The students were willing and able to commit to the project, as evidenced by some students’ plans to take care of the garden over the summer.

“These are students from Montrose who didn’t feel very successful when they came here. For them to achieve something like this is a big accomplishment,” said Dharsi. “They deserve so much credit for sticking with it. For me as a teacher, [all that they’ve done] is quite impressive.”