This fall, the BPY GrowTorah garden has been filled with color, flavor, beauty and inspiration. Every week while tending to the land, students learn lessons from the weekly parsha and chagim with Farmer Yosef. These lessons are anchored in GrowTorah’s four core educational values: incubating emunah, environmental stewardship, cultivating compassion for creatures and living tzedaka. To prepare for the Yamim Noraim, students harvested a gorgeous bounty to donate. They gathered chives, tomatoes, okra and mint which was brought to the JCFS Corner Market food pantry. While harvesting, the students learned about teshuva, tefillah and tzedaka as central to the Aseret Yemei Teshuva.

For Parshat Bereshit, students explored the days of creation while working in the garden, saving okra and nasturtium seeds for next season, and planting garlic seeds that they saved last year! GrowTorah currently works with 25 schools and camps across the USA and BPY is proud to have been the first New Jersey elementary school partner—since 2016!