Two high school students from the Berkshires are here for three days to talk up organic student-run farming. Sophomore Sam Levine, 15, and senior Sarah Steadman, 18, are sharing their story of how they were able to start a farm in a school soccer field next to their high school and bring thousands of pounds of produce to their school cafeteria. Today they continue their tour of Island farms and meet with students at the regional high school to share their farming stories.

On Wednesday night, after a day in the Vineyard regional high school, the two along with friends appeared at a Martha’s Vineyard Slow Foods potluck dinner at the Chilmark Community Center. More than 60 attended the dinner to share in a good home cooked Island-based meal and listen to the young adults talk about the role farming can play in a community, in a school slightly smaller than the Vineyard’s high school.

More than a year ago, the students started tilling the soil outside of their Monument Mount High School in Great Barrington.

They started with a 3,000 square foot garden and were producing in no time. When summer came and the academic season was over, the garden continued producing food under the care of the students. Miss Steadman said the garden produced over 1,000 pounds of vegetables for the Women, Infant and Children (WIC) Nutrition Program, a federally funded supplemental food program. She said much of the impetus towards her getting involved came out of her own childhood memories. “I spent my childhood gardening with my mother. But today, I worry about the state of the environment,” she said.

Mr. Levine said the mission was tied to getting back to nature, to teaching students how to garden, to learn and promote sustainable farming. “We are getting ready to triple the size of our garden, to 11,000 square feet. We want to have an orchard, grow raspberries,” he said.

Seated near the two teens was their school guidance counselor Michael Powell and a neighborhood farmer Dominic Palumbo, who runs Moon in the Pond Farm, of Sheffield. Both men spoke about the wildfire growth of students wanting to learn how to garden that occurred once the soil was broken.

Mr. Palumbo is the Berkshire regional leader of Slow Food.

The evening was about connecting growers to growers. Though the wind outside of the community center was blowing snow and the roads were wet, the air inside was warm and smelled of freshly baked breads. Many of the Island’s farmers were in attendance, from nearby neighbor, Clarissa Allen of Allen Farm, to Matthew Goldfarb of Farm Institute in Katama. Slow Food Martha’s Vineyard is an organization aimed at raising public awareness about the benefits of buying local food and reaching sustainability. The Island branch was formed in 2005. There were plenty of farmers in the audience who stood up and applauded after the teenagers had given their speech.

Elizabeth Germain, president of Slow Food MV, introduced the evening’s speakers, and reported that she and a group of seven other Vineyarders had heard Mr. Levine for the first time while attending a Slow Food International meeting in Turin, Italy last October, where he spoke before an audience made up of thousands, his face projected on a big screen. The international meeting included farmers, food producers and cooks and was held to further their cause of preserving cultural food traditions and developing more sustainable production methods.

Mr. Levine said that communities can welcome a student-run garden, but that it requires a shift in thinking: “This is more than something that can happen. This will happen.”

The potluck dinner featured the Island’s own produce. Rick Karney of the Martha’s Vineyard Shellfish Group provided a meal made from Island oysters. Others provided vegetable dishes and locally made desserts. There were curries, baked beans and plenty of salads. Participants were asked to bring their own silverware. Some brought their own plates.

The next dinner will be held at the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society hall on March 19.