In 2015 Winnwood Elementary was awarded a grant from their district, North Kansas City Schools, to construct two raised beds. With support from the district’s Food and Nutrition Services department the garden has impacted the entire school.
Mrs. Gates’ 3rd grade class plants and cares for the garden. The garden sits in a courtyard that the students can see from their classroom. In early June students planted their garden with tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini and sunflowers and then watered and weeded throughout the summer. In August, students began harvesting the produce and taking home vegetables to share with their families.
The harvest did not end with students taking vegetables home. Because the zucchini and cucumbers were so prolific the cafeteria was able to serve cucumbers, roasted zucchini and squash as well as zucchini noodles (zoodles!) to the entire school. Over 300 students were able to enjoy the veggies, straight from their schoolyard garden!
Food and Nutrition Services embraced the harvest and created signs with growing information and photos to highlight that the produce was from Winnwood’s own schoolyard garden.
Through the 3rd graders’ hard work, they were not only able to provide food for the school, but also able to educate their entire school community.