Bay to Bay News: Interest in nature is growing on Frear students

Camden elementary school harvests its own lunches

By Xiomara Moore

CAMDEN — At Allen Frear Elementary School, students are provided healthy lunches, with carrots, lettuce and radishes grown on-site by its students.

Since 2023, the school has partnered with the Delaware nonprofit Healthy Foods for Healthy Kids to provide a garden-based education.

Children there harvest vegetables every fall and spring, during classroom time. That yield is served in the cafeteria, in salads for students and teachers.

During a visit Tuesday, May 19, the young gardeners filled nine bags of handpicked lettuce, nine of spinach, two of carrots and three of radishes.

The Healthy Foods for Healthy Kids garden education effort is implemented in 68 schools across the state. Its goal is to have a vegetable garden in every educational facility in Delaware.

On April 16, the nonprofit got some assistance, as it was named the state’s sole recipient of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Patrick Leahy Farm to School Grant, which financially supports the plans and implementation of such programs.

Healthy Foods for Healthy Kids received $294,390 to pilot a tiered model to provide consistent and sustainable programming across its schools. Most of the initiative’s other funding comes from donors like civic organizations and businesses.

Andrea Lamotte, an achievement liaison teacher at Frear, said the school is provided garden beds, seeds and soil. She and third grade teacher Morgan Mcmanus act as garden coordinators.

Each year, Healthy Foods asks the teachers what four vegetables they would like in the fall and in the spring, then sends the seeds. Next, Lamotte will send Frear teachers instructional videos about the roles of each grade level in the garden, and the students view them.

Every fall and spring, each grade has a job, she continued. First graders till the soil with tiny garden forks to prepare for seed planting. Then, second graders plant the seeds, third graders water them, and fourth graders complete the first harvest. Lastly, fifth graders perform the second harvest and take care of the composting.

The school has a drip-irrigation system that runs twice a day at the beginning of each growing season. Mcmanus said the irrigation eventually tapers off, and then, the third graders take over with a hose.

Each week, Lamotte shares the gardening schedule with teachers, laying out what time classes will complete their tasks. Students usually have 20 minutes to plant, water or harvest. The school’s Eco Club also spends time in the plot, closing and opening it each season and ensuring proper maintenance.

For the kids, the program is a way to get their hands dirty and see the food they eat up close and personal.

One fourth grader, Tamera Satchell, said she likes to garden because she gets to see vegetables outside of supermarkets.

“A lot of kids, they go to the grocery store, and they see their parents buy food, and they don’t realize where it comes from,” Lamotte added. “It’s neat for some of those kids to realize, ‘Oh, I can plant a seed that grows into a vegetable that, then, we’re going to pick and eat.’”

Additionally, the activities support classroom learning, by giving students real-world experience with ecosystems, plants and recycling. For example, third graders not only read about the germination of seeds but also see the process with their own eyes.

“I’ve had kids ask, ‘Can I talk to my parents about having a garden at my house?’” Lamotte said. “So, I think it definitely, maybe, hopefully, inspires some kids to, as they grow up, ... have their own garden in their backyard and encourage their parents to do it now.”

Read original article: https://baytobaynews.com/stories/allen-frear-school-garden-sparks-student-interest-in-nature,319858