When I met with V. Lindsay Seventh Day Adventist School in Kansas City, Kansas this summer to plan their fall vegetable garden, they knew exactly what they wanted to do with their harvest. The teachers and students of this small K-8 school agreed to grow veggies to harvest and donate to the families living around the school.

We worked carefully to choose what to plant in the school’s three raised beds based on cool weather-hardiness and how well they could store. In August, the students planted broccoli, collard greens, kale, cabbage and carrots. Since then, the students have been watering and maintaining their vegetable plants and monitoring their growth almost every day during recess. They planted a small variety of vegetables, so that each Thanksgiving basket would have at least one head of broccoli or cabbage, and a decent portion of kale, collards and carrots.

The Thanksgiving baskets will not only ensure that these families have a fresh, healthy meal to enjoy during the holiday, but they will also strengthen the school’s relationship with their neighboring community. On Monday, Mr. Williams’s class of middle schoolers walked the baskets to the homes of the families in the neighborhood that signed up for the baskets.

In addition to the fresh vegetables, the school secured 20 turkey donations and wicker basket donations from several businesses to complete the Thanksgiving packages.

“It’s really been a blessing,” said Jamie Charles, who works at V. Lindsay and helped facilitate the donations.