February in the south....

...is fabulous! It's 81 and sunny, and has been this gorgeous for almost 2 weeks now. I keep forgetting it's February/winter in most parts of the US. We've already had Mardi Gras AND spring break so this program is quickly approaching its end. Mardi Gras was an interesting experience and a lot to take in. I'm glad we had the rest of the week for our spring break to recharge! This semester, we've had less lecture based courses and more presentation based classes which I love.

This month, I volunteered at another family food night at Green charter school. The theme for this dinner was a Mardi Gras picnic - complete with yellow, green, and purple vegetables + fruits. I learned that Edible Schoolyard actually provides 70% of the students' meals during the week. In addition, after each family food night, ESY provides a swag bag of the ingredients needed to make the dishes at home. Because I love Edible Schoolyard so much, I also started volunteering as a weekly garden volunteer at Wheatley community school. This past week I helped teach 1st and 4th graders how to create an experiment and develop hypotheses using plants. In addition to volunteering with ESY, a few classmates and I volunteered with SOUL NOLA to plant 150 trees around New Orleans. After Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans became the most deforested city in the entire United States! I'm glad SOUL does frequent tree plantings since the trees not only improve the environment, but also aid in flood prevention which this city desperately needs.
 
Planting trees in Mid City with SOUL

February hours: 11.5 hours
Total spring hours: 20 hours

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