Three turtles are waiting in the garden at the Max Myers Playground. The kids have to find them. As David Crutchfield, garden educator with Farm Philly’s Junior Farmers program, leads the after-school program attendees outside, the children sprint ahead, eager to dive into the kale, squash, beets and other plants to search. The Northeast Philly
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When you were in high school, did you eat everything that got plopped onto your tray in the cafeteria? Some things never change, but W.B. Saul High School, an agriculture-focused high school in Northwest Philadelphia, has taken advantage of funding from the Green Schools program to help compost the leftovers (and the compostable trays). Saul
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It was a muggy morning in mid-August and parents were gathered inside The Academy at Palumbo High School’s cafeteria, chatting animatedly over coffee and biscuits. The occasion was the First-Year Student Breakfast, an annual event the school’s Home and School Association (HSA) hosts to connect new families with school staff and parent volunteers. The meeting
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A flock of passenger pigeons rests frozen in time on the third floor of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University. The birds feed on the ground, rest on twigs and raise their wings to take to the air in a beech forest whose colonnade of gray trunks recedes into the diorama’s painted background.
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One in 10 Philadelphia public schools had high lead levels in water sources used for food preparation, according to tests conducted by the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) over the past three years. The dangerously high levels of lead, a potent neurotoxin linked to stunted development and learning difficulties, were found by the district during
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Dear Readers, Grid’s December issue, #211, will be its last in print. Our business model is no longer working. I have mixed feelings about making this announcement. As someone who has spent over three decades in this medium, I’m attached to it. I will forever prefer paper and ink to any other format. However, I’m
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Just before 10 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 27, dozens of people stood in line outside the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, waiting in the spitting rain for the museum to open its doors to the public for the final time. Artie Cohen, 6, who’d been going to the Academy since he was 2
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Surrounding nearly every suburban business center and office park are swaths of manicured grass, occasionally interrupted by ornamental landscaping. Unlike green space at schools or residential complexes, it’s rare to see this outdoor space used for recreation or sunbathing. In fact, it isn’t really used for anything. Up Top Acres, an agricultural startup based in
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