Vegetables, Fruit and Learning Blossom at School Community Gardens
Parent volunteer Deborah King shows students how to plant seeds at the school garden at Green Gables.
Vegetables, berries and fruits are springing up at school community gardens throughout the district this summer. But it’s not just produce that’s blooming in the gardens; students also are growing in countless ways through their participation in the gardens.
School garden projects can bring excitement and meaning to lessons in practically every subject taught at school. The garden is a perfect place to learn about science, math, art, literacy, nutrition, social studies and cooking. In Federal Way, teachers are designing outdoor classrooms in their gardens and undergoing training in how to integrate a school garden into the curriculum.
Beyond the academics, students who tend the gardens learn accountability and patience. They also build self-esteem and the spirit of community service as they watch their gardens become more fruitful and beautiful.
Gardens were built at Truman High School and Camelot, Enterprise, Green Gables and Nautilus elementary schools this year. The gardens are part of the Federal Way Community Garden Foundation, which also includes a garden at the Federal Way Senior Center and one under construction at a local church. The foundation’s goal is to build at least 20 gardens throughout Federal Way and to provide fresh, organic produce to people throughout the community in need.
This year, community gardens will provide approximately 15,000 pounds of fruits and vegetables to people in need through the Federal Way Senior Center food pantry, senior housing apartments, the Meals-on-Wheels program and community suppers hosted by the Federal Way Community Caregivers Network.
A school community garden costs at least $3,000 to build. In addition to fundraisers and sponsorships, some schools have applied for grants. Enterprise received a $1,000 grant from the City of Federal Way to build a greenhouse at their garden.
Another benefit of the school and community gardens is that they bring parents, the community and the schools together. Volunteers from the schools, neighborhoods and local churches have worked to build and tend the gardens while PTAs and local businesses have offered financial support.
“The project is a perfect link between students, their families, and the larger community,” said Green Gables teacher Karen Konrad. “Working with soil and seed is a universal language rooted in our shared history. Strengthening this link between all Green Gables parents and the community has been an ongoing goal for our school.”
These gardens aren’t just for the schools. They’re for the communities. Relationships are built over the dirt in school community gardens. “It’s pretty magical what brings people together,” said Camelot teacher Darcy Borg. “I’ve heard a lot of people say ‘thank you for doing this because we needed some way of bringing our neighborhood together.’”
Students who live in the neighborhood near Camelot, often bored when school is out, have found a way to be productive and occupied because of the school gardens, Borg said. “They just walk right over across the field when they see us out there. Before you know it you’ve got a group of kids that have spent three hours or four hours out there shoveling dirt and gravel. It’s been pretty fun to see them just step it up and say ‘How can we help?’”
In addition to staying out of mischief, students who work in the school gardens are more likely to eat vegetables, Borg said. “If they grow it, they’re more likely to eat their own,” she said.
Master gardener Mike Stanley, executive director of the Federal Way Community Garden Foundation, said he hopes more schools will contact him for help starting gardens. “This is a project that I believe is going to have a great value for the schools and I’m really anxious to see more of these schools have gardens in them,” he said.
“It’s just really very valuable to the learning experience of the kids,” said Stanley. “They, maybe for once in their lives, get to be part of planning and developing a beautiful place that would go on and on without them.”