Sow educational

Campus gardens cultivate interest in origins of food

Grace Brownlee, a sophomore at Kennesaw State University near Atlanta, was pleasantly surprised that she didn’t have to go over the basics of gardening for the students at Riverwood Elementary in Cordova on Tuesday morning.

“It was really cool seeing how much the kids already knew,” she said, followed by an imitation of how one of the youngsters shared knowledge about worms in compost. Brownlee and 22 of her college classmates spent their spring break in Memphis volunteering, and a handful of them were on site at Riverwood to help install a new school garden.

The garden is part of an ongoing project by the Kitchen Community, a Colorado-based nonprofit started by Kimbal Musk, an investor, entrepreneur and brother of PayPal

co-founder Elon Musk.

Marie Dennan, the local program manager, said the organization’s goal is to build 100 gardens in Memphis in two years.

This month marks the end of their first full year. By the end of the school year, Dennan said, they will have built 55 gardens, on pace for their two-year goal. Dennan said educators have latched onto the program as a way to create new learning spaces and opportunities.

Kitchen Community has partnered mostly with Shelby County Schools, but has gardens in staterun Achievement School District and Catholic Jubilee schools. Teachers from the schools that wish to participate fill out applications to receive a raised-bed garden. The organization is currently fielding applications for gardens to be built in the fall.

The total grant for the city is for $4 million with each garden costing $35,000, including soil, seeds, a self-contained irrigation system and yearround educational and maintenance support.

At Riverwood, about 200 children, many of whom had already been exposed to gardening through their school’s focus on the environment, came outside in waves on a sunny day to fill the gardens with dirt and bury the seeds for an array of plants, including turnips, strawberries and poppies.

First-grade teacher Veronique Worlds started teaching students about gardening earlier this year as part of a science curriculum. They started growing seedlings in the classroom and transferred them outside. She said the kids weren’t enthusiastic about eating their greens, but before long, they were making smoothies in the classroom using the fruits — and vegetables — of their labors.

Worlds started incorporating gardening into other subjects, including using gardening books in reading lessons, and plans to do more with the addition of the much more elaborate Kitchen Community garden.

“It’s like an integration of all their core work that we teach, right here in this garden,” she said.

PHOTOS BY YALONDA M. JAMES/THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL Students including first-grader Brooklyn Robinson (center), 7, examine pieces of pearlite during a lesson in gardening. A purpose of the program is to teach children where food comes from.

Kalynn Allen, a first-grade student at Riverwood Elementary, pats down soil as she learns about gardening during planting day with members of The Kitchen Community and students from Kennesaw State.