Official Kids Mag

By Suzanne Rhodes Official Kids Mag Have you ever planted your own garden? Dug up the dirt, carefully placed the tiny seeds in rows, covered them with soil, gently watered everything and checked every day to see if anything had come up? And then it happens! As if by magic a week or two later, tiny green sprouts have sprung up everywhere, sprouts that will become lettuce and carrots and squash and other tasty items. What a great feeling to grow your own healthy food! Kids in Fayetteville public schools got that happy feeling a lot because their schools have gardens and student gardeners (though right now, they can't work in the gardens because of Covid). They are our Kid Heroes this month because they were able to spread the joy far beyond each of their own schools to benefit hundreds of other students in the community during the pandemic. They did this when school leaders included in meal packs about 300 pounds of fresh produce the kids had grown. Because of everyone's efforts in the school community, Arkansas Grown School Garden of the Year chose Fayetteville City Schools for an awesome award called Best Harvest Partnership Garden for 2020. This award is given every year to garden programs that work successfully to help the community through partnerships. Fayetteville earned the prize because of the school district's many school gardens that contributed food to lunch packets and also because they donated a lot of food to the school's Outback Pantry for Fayetteville families. Another special program recognized in the award was "Harvest of the Month" that features an ingredient from a local farm that uses kids in taste tests. In Fayetteville, the garden program started over 15 years ago. "School gardens provide a hands-on opportunity for children to learn about Arkansas agriculture and where their food comes from. The lessons learned through school gardens have a lasting impact on children, their families, and entire communities," said Secretary of Agriculture Wes Ward. Sisters Pearle and Hettie Mincy, students at Washington elementary before Covid-19, certainly have benefited from their garden club. As Pearle, a fourth grader, explained, "We learned about healthy foods, how to take care of the garden and which plants are good for the soil. We also got to cook in the kitchen and would make a snack with the food we grew." Hettie, who's in the first grade, said, "I like garden club because you get to pick things but you have to eat them, and you don't even have to ask." So, how did the Fayetteville schools team up to help the community during the pandemic? As the Covid-19 virus started spreading in Northwest Arkansas, the Fayetteville school district closed all the schools on March 16, 2020. Now that the kids were doing school at home, an urgent question came up: what about the school breakfasts and lunches the students were accustomed to having? School officials Allyson Mrachek and Sim Barrows went into action and started putting together meal packs for students. Ally, as she likes to be called, is the director of child nutrition and also runs the district schools' meal program. Sim is the environmental science coordinator. He takes students on field trips to Lake Fayetteville Environmental Center and Mt. Kessler Outdoor Classroom. He is also over the school garden program. Ally and Sim work together in "Seed to Student," the farm-to-school and school garden program. "We have teachers and cafeteria and staff that make up our bigger team," Ally said. "We used our school gardens to enhance the freshness and nutrition of our emergency meal packs." She said they had gotten baby plants from the City of Fayetteville, and these were transplanted to the school gardens. Before long there were peppers, tomatoes, kale, spinach, salad greens, peas, carrots, radishes and other delicious produce. Sim pointed out that "garden leaders" – volunteer teachers, school staff members and parents who work in the gardens – harvested the Fayetteville schools win Best Harvest Partnership award Fresh food from school gardens feeds hundreds of kids at home during pandemic 42 • May 2021 • www.officialKidsMag.com

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