Cleveland is always blossoming with passion, creativity, awareness, and inspiration. This year we’ve got countless new clubs, classes, students, teachers, and all other kinds of beautiful things. The Sustainable Agriculture (SAG) club is one of those things. Created by seniors Jessica Loveland and Meg Matsuzaki, the SAG club will be having its first meeting on Nov. 12 in Robert Schlichting’s room (320) at lunch.

Loveland and Matsuzaki are passionate about this new club and they are determined to make a change with it.

“The Sustainable Ag club will be focused on coming up with ways to make our school more environmentally sustainable and ultimately our goal is to start up a community garden full of delicious fruits and vegetables,” said Matsuzaki. “It seems pretty ambitious and a lot of work, but I believe with the amount of passionate students we have in the club, we will succeed.”

Their main goal is to create a community garden and with that garden, so many more enriching things can happen within our community.

“Hopefully, once the garden is well established, classes such as IB Environmental Systems and Societies or biology may be able to integrate a hands-on unit at the garden into their curriculum,” said Loveland. “Overall, the club and garden will bring awareness to the importance of sustainability as well as build a sense of community between Cleveland students and surrounding families in the neighborhood.”

The club already has nearly 40 interested students ready to get involved and make the community a better place. Not only will they be working to create a community garden, but they will be educating people and even doing some volunteering. “In addition to planning the project, SAG members will learn all about sustainability and the importance of our food choices,” Matsuzaki explained, adding, “SAG will also meet outside of school, getting involved with the local community and maybe even getting our hands dirty volunteering at an organic farm!”

A huge upside to the garden project is the fact that they plan to grow fresh produce, which would make this garden a helpful resource for the school. “The school could benefit from fresh produce for school lunches!” said Loveland.

Our Warriors are always creating new ways to make our community better. With this club, they will literally and figuratively be planting so many seeds into the minds and lands of our community, inspiring people to live a healthier lifestyle, which will help them and the world around them. Meetings will be at lunch in Mr. Schlichting’s room (320) on the second Thursday of every month until spring, when they will start building the garden.