Other schools participating are Beamer and Plainfield in Woodland, as well as Westmore Oaks, Stonegate and Elkhorn Village Elementary in Sacramento. The program empowers elementary students to learn how to grow, harvest and eat fresh produce at schools while sustaining edible gardens on site.

Whitehead’s garden has an 11,000-square-foot plot, featuring 24 beds and about eight to 10 fruit trees — an insect garden was also recently planted. According to Michelle Johnson, a parent and coordinator for the garden, more than 200 pounds of produce were produced this year from the garden.

Johnson, along with Pauline Sanders, makes sure the garden is maintained when students aren’t in there, or over the summer.

Johnson has a son in kindergarten at Whitehead, she threw the idea of reviving the garden a few years ago with help from her husband. A teacher started an afterschool program, and things took off from there.

“We try to plant what can be eaten raw, like melons, lettuce, radishes and fennel,” she said. “At the end of the day it’s about getting the kids to try new foods, flavors, and learn about how food is grown.”

The produce goes to the school’s cafeteria, and Johnson said about 87 percent of the school has free or reduced lunch, so most of Whitehead eats what is grown in the garden.

Companies like Orchard Supply Hardware and Monsanto have provided tools and labor, while an average of 10 to 20 students are in the garden helping out on a weekly basis, the regular workday is Thursday from 3 to 4 p.m. with the aftershcool program.

Johnson said some teachers will take classes out to the garden as well to have them maintain the plot or just to have lessons on bugs. One class even planted a salsa garden, filled with peppers, tomatoes and the like.

She added that the community involvement is a big part of maintenance, volunteers are needed to keep the garden thriving.

Laura Ongaro, a recent graduate from UC Davis with a degree in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems, interns at Whitehead’s garden through the Yolo Farm to Fork program. She’s been helping since the fall of 2016.

“I work with Michelle, we have a garden club hours program and kids have an extra hour out here,” she said. “Just general garden stuff. It’s cool because it really gets the kids to eat more vegetables. They are more into it when they’re involved.”

Ongaro said kids will pull vegetables off and eat them, dirt and all, as if they were pieces of candy. She, along with Johnson, said there is a growing interest throughout the county to further these types of programs.

“I enjoy it and I want to do something with this in the future. There’s been more interest over the years,” she said. “It gets the kids aware at a young age, they know the produce and gain knowledge of what grows in what season.”

Johnson added that with the growing interest Whitehead has heard from other schools that want to get a garden going, Gibson being one that’s reached out.

It takes community involvement to maintain upkeep, but the main focus will always be involving the youth.

“The kids really take ownership and responsibility because they actually maintain it,” Johnson said. “It’s not ours (the adults’), it’s theirs to maintain and take ownership of.”

By Tommy McCormick with the Woodland Daily Democrat

http://www.dailydemocrat.com/social-affairs/20170519/whitehead-one-of-six-schools-in-farm-to-fork-pilot-program

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