MATTAPOISETT — It may be early in the school year, but Old Hammondtown School sixth graders are already hard at work in more ways than one.

The Mattapoisett PTA coordinated a field trip for grade six students and teachers to "Sharing the Harvest," a volunteer-staffed farm at the Dartmouth YMCA that grows and distributes fresh food to local food banks.

On Tuesday Sept. 25, seventy-sixth graders spent their morning processing thousands of pounds of butternut squash, preparing seedling trays, planting garlic for next year's harvest, and unearthing sweet potatoes. Students worked diligently and enthusiastically despite the rain, leaving bushels of freshly-harvested food behind.

"This was a great experience to prepare for our new Social Studies frameworks, which challenge students to think about how agriculture and food surpluses enable civilizations to advance, and it was a lot of fun to quite literally get our hands dirty!" says Sara Jacobsen, grade six teacher.