First in Bulgaria student organic farm Sunny Garden



The foundation for organic agriculture Bioselena is the author of a project that set up the first organic farm for students in Bulgaria. The farm is called Sunny Garden and its preparation began 3 years ago. As of April 2010, the farm has been operating successfully. Only for the first 6 months of opening doors, 1100 students from several secondary schools in the capital Sofia have attended the farm. The other partners in the project are the Agriculture University of Plovdiv, which provided the a lot of 9 hectares of land for Sunny Garden;
a centre for work with children in Sofia and a non-governmental organization from Norway which was experience in setting up organic farms for students. The project has been financed under a Norwegian program for cooperation with Bulgaria and Romania. The head of Bioselena Foundation, Stoylko Apostolov, says more:

The main aim of the farm is to aid the sustainable education of the students about the environment. The most important thing is for children not only to learn but also to do different things which they will need one day. The work in the spring projects of the farm regards soil preparation and sowing crops. In the autumn we harvest crops and can some of the produce for the winter. We also have year-round programs on the production of cheese, yoghurt, cream, butter and bread.”“Students get to learn the entire process of crop production,” says Yordan Yordanov, head of Sunny Garden. According to Mariana Tafrova, head of the center for work with children in Sofia, in the farm, children learn where the food comes from.

“Some children think that milk is something poured out of machines,” Mariana Tafrova explains. “Or they think that butter is made in some nearly extraterrestrial way. Since recently the question about the quality of the food we consume has received renewed attention, it is about time children began to learn about what is good to eat and what not and about organic foods. A lot of Bulgarian children are prone to overweight and this is why they need to know why it is not good to eat chips and other junk food.”

Tsvetanka Toneva, headmaster of school N120 in Sofia, adds:

“The migration processes from villages to cities deprive children from a direct contact with nature,” she says. “I can openly say that many of them don’t recognize sheep from goats. This is disturbing.”





According to her, children need to receive practical education. Jolien Perotti, expert in work with children from Norway, says that near Oslo there are between 20 and 50 organic farms for children and in each class there are at least 2-3 kids who want to become farmers. "
This connection with life is very important because every community can decide whether to produce portable computers or flat monitor TV sets but cannot choose whether to produce food or not. I am very happy that we can contribute through our experience for the creation of such experimental bio-farms and for restoring the connection between school and nature"
, Jolien Perotti further said.