Though it spans less than half an acre, the Hub City Urban Farm reaches mightily. Last year, it produced 1,800 pounds of produce, twice the prior year’s yield. Additionally, all of its organic fruits and vegetables, from tomatillos and okra to melons and pawpaw, sell on a mobile truck that visits 15 sites each week. On a hot evening last month, the mobile market visited the local YMCA, where customers purchased okra, potatoes, and peaches (buy two, get one free).
Goodchild-Michelman helped out with day-to-day crop maintenance at the farm but spent the bulk of her 80 required volunteer hours writing grants to fund the lessons and making sure Seed to Table met South Carolina educational standards. For guidance on creating the science and math activities, she sought advice from her fifth-grade teacher, Mary Ann Stoddard.
“The issue was covering the standards, but also it was important [to ensure] that if teachers are going to take their children out of the classroom, they need to know that the lesson needs to be used really well, that it will impact the [students’] learning,” Stoddard said.
Stoddard, a teacher at the Pine Street School for 35 years, praised Goodchild-Michelman, who helped launch a mentoring book club, as much for her generosity as for her work ethic.
“Isabella has such a passion for learning and science and math and reading. There’s also this desire to impact the community. She sees a vision, and she doesn’t give up,” Stoddard said. “We need people like Isabella who will work hard, and it’s not about them. It’s, ‘What can I do to give back?’”
Allyson Sandago, leader of Troop 1344, said she was grateful her girls were among the first beneficiaries of what she hopes will be a sustained effort.
“This is science, hands-on, in real life. This year we have a very specific requirement and the farm lessons are a natural fit to round out our experience going into sixth grade,” Sandago said. “They need to have their hands out in the world so they can value it.”
For Goodchild-Michelman, “Seeing the smiles on the girls’ faces — and seeing a couple of them really understanding those scientific and ecological concepts — made me happy.”
“In the end, that’s really what the project is about — reaching a lot of people, but also improving the lives of each individual student,” she said.