“Even as they await the coming of spring, the students at Middle River Consolidated School on Cape Breton Island, N.S., are already looking forward to autumn. That’s when they plan to set up a market on school grounds and sell the produce from their vegetable garden. ‘We’ve sold our produce before, at the market in town and to a local restaurant that bought three-quarters of our harvest last year,’says Donna Anton-Mulley, a teacher at Middle River, which has 24 students aged five to 12 years who are in mixed-grade classes. ‘This year our plan is have a market at our school in October after we harvest and have the public come to us.’ While Ms. Anton-Mulley oversees the school’s garden program, she says it was the students who hatched the plan for this year’s market.” Wrote Marjo Johne for a special to the Globe and Mail. Johne continued, “They’ll be running the show, doing everything from making flyers to counting the cash at the end of the sale. To help, the school has been giving them lessons on such topics as how to start and run a business, manage money, and work as a team. ‘We’ve brought in guest speakers who talked to the kids about what’s involved in running a business,’ says Ms. Anton-Mulley. ‘And we let the kids just run the market business by themselves – they work together, they decide who’s doing which job, and they decide what to do with the money.’ It’s a long way from the lemonade stand that has given many generations their first taste of entrepreneurship. But for today’s young Canadians, the fundamental lesson is the same whether they’re selling citrus beverages in front of their house or kale at a farmer’s market: entrepreneurship is essential.” Read the full article here. | Raymond Matt, CFP, CLU, TEP, CHS
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