Nicholson Elementary: Master Gardener Support of a School Garden
Farm to School + Master Gardeners: A Case Study at Nicholson Elementary
By Ashley Adair, Holly Catron
10/15/2020
CASE: Master Gardener support of a school garden
How do you support school gardens effectively?
In Montgomery County, the local Master Gardener Association has supported an ongoing Farm to School project at Nicholson Elementary School over the past three years. Of the 13 active Master Gardeners (MGs), nine have dedicated substantial time and effort to the Nicholson’s Garden.
Nicholson, a Crawfordsville elementary school, hosts 2nd and 3rd graders and has operated the school garden for over a decade. Master Gardeners work diligently alongside teachers to leverage the garden as a learning space for students and a donation garden for FISH Food Pantry, located at St. Bernard’s Catholic Church.
Two of the Master Gardeners coordinate the work schedule for everyone who wants to be involved. In late April and early May, the MGs work with students for two weeks to plant the garden. Throughout the growing season, MGs work in the garden for 2-hour shifts. If a MG prefers to work with adults, they sign up for shifts to maintain the garden after school hours or in the summer. Those who are interested in working with the youth select shifts when they will interact with and teach the students.
During the school day in the planting season, each classroom sends a teacher or aide along with 10-12 students to spend a 20-minute rotation with the Master Gardeners. The student group is divided in two, and each group spends about 10 minutes at each of the two stations completing the work for that day. For example, one station might involve learning how to plant potatoes, while the other may focus on seeding carrots.
Outside of this instructional time, students are welcome to go to the garden and monitor its progress at recess, or teachers can take the students to the garden anytime. The small gardeners enjoy watching the fruits of their labor and take pride in seeing a flower seed they planted bloom for the first time.
During the summer, students can be part of a school garden club. A retired teacher, involved with the original implementation of the garden, and another active teacher lead this popular club. The group meets once or twice a month over the summer, depending on how much work is to be done in the garden. These volunteers continue to show students how to care for and harvest the produce. Students and parents meet at the garden in small groups for the club.
The Master Gardeners continue to watch over and support the garden throughout the growing season. Produce is used in the school cafeteria when students are in session. Both during the school year and the summer, excess produce in the garden is donated to local food pantries such as FISH Food Pantry that operates out of St. Bernard’s Catholic Church in Crawfordsville. The garden, roughly 1000 square feet in size including some adjacent raised beds, produced 1090 pounds of produce in 2020.
Crawfordsville’s school dietitian (a Chartwells employee) and Purdue Extension staff in Montgomery County, along with a small team of volunteers collaborated on a food safety plan and food handling protocol that would clear produce from the garden for use in the school cafeteria.
The food safety plan was approved by the school corporation in fall 2019, a policy change allowing produce from the garden to be used in the cafeteria. Part of the food safety plan and protocol puts specific stipulations on how produce must be handled in the garden and on its way to the cafeteria. The Master Gardeners follow these guidelines and teach students to do the same.
Access to produce at school is huge for these students. Out of 412 students, 267 are eligible for free or reduced lunch prices, a rate of nearly 65%. (2018-2019 school year stats).
The Master Gardeners, Purdue Extension, and coordinating teachers at Nicholson have the enthusiastic support of the principal who gave us the green light to plan a Farm to School supper event during Farm to School month in 2019.
This event invited students, families, and community partners to school for an evening meal and garden- and nutrition-themed activities. We celebrated the school garden and the decision to allow the garden produce in the cafeteria. It served as a recruitment opportunity for the garden club.
Families were incentivized to attend with a free meal from the school cafeteria and community-donated prizes. Students completed a passport as they participated in the available activities, earning an entry to win a Hoverboard at the conclusion of the event. The event drummed up even more interest for the summer garden club, garnering around 50 students’ names for interest.