Imagine this scenario: You stumble into the school cafeteria expecting yet another serving of tuna boat, but instead you find bare single-serving pizzas. Next, you’re invited by other students to select your own toppings – but they’re a bit unorthodox: sautéed squash, okra, eggplant, and other organic items from your school’s garden. Much to your surprise, they taste great! Welcome to the Warren School’s

When sixth grade teacher Alisa Wright, her principal, and students in Warren, CT, first hatched the idea of a schoolyard community garden, they wanted it to be a vehicle for “making connections to food and to the environment, community, and curriculum.” Now, more than four years later, it’s well on track. One of their secrets? Cultivate enthusiasm for garden edibles in the cafeteria and classrooms!

The whole school is involved in what they dubbed the Harvest of Dreams garden, but it’s the sixth graders who lead the way. These senior garden stewards are responsible for coordinating planning and planting each spring, teaching schoolwide garden lessons, and preparing and hosting their signature Harvest Luncheon in the fall.

Before planting time, Alisa’s students develop lessons on such topics as sowing and germinating. Then they spend 40 minutes in each classroom – dressed up as carrots and other edible characters – engaging and teaching garden helpers. Teams of garden leaders reinforce the concepts by taking youngsters into the garden for real-life demonstrations and practice.

Students and parents work on summer garden maintenance and bring early harvests to a local soup kitchen and food bank. Come harvest season, each grade has a unique role: the kindergarten students make pickles and chutney from garden produce, first and third graders enter items from their garden harvest into fairs, and second and fourth grade students put the garden to bed once it’s been picked clean.

Pizza-for-All Harvest Luncheon

When the sixth graders return in the fall, they immerse themselves in the garden: carefully observing, touching, and tasting the fruits of their labor. Then they roll up their sleeves and prepare for the Harvest Luncheon.

“We make decisions as a class about how to run the luncheon,” says Alisa. (Cafeteria staff already agreed to buy single-serving pizza shells.) “Just after Labor Day, students begin to prepare for the luncheon by harvesting, chopping, and dicing vegetables on tables in the classroom.” Groups of students rotate through these prep stations. Some then sauté the produce in parent-donated skillets; others put together a tomato, basil, and onion salad to accompany the pizzas. A sign-up chart details who will do which jobs – welcoming, serving, and conducting garden tours for the Harvest Luncheon later that week.

Donning the Harvest of Dreams aprons they made (complete with a logo designed on a class computer), students serve up their fresh-flavored-fare. The proud growers and chefs walk through the cafeteria offering samples of salads and pizza-topping options. But it’s not just the school community they nourish. “We invite lots of other people to the luncheon,” explains Alisa. This includes a senior group, district administrators, members of the board of education, town selectmen, the Department of Environmental Protection’s commissioner, uncles, parents, and more. “My class also gives garden tours and talks about the history of the garden and how they plant and maintain it,” says Alisa.

The Cooking Continues
The students’ fun with cuisine doesn’t stop there. Enthused about cooking and eating the garden bounty, the school community follows up with some type of cooking competition. One theme: making grandma’s favorite vegetable recipe. Other flavorful themes include a “taste of tomatoes” and a chili cook-off. The judging component is always a highlight! One year, Alisa’s students wanted to focus on herbs. They recognized that many of the herbs we use were not indigenous to this county. “My class came up with great herb information cards that featured histories, how each herb came to this country, and how they’ve been used.” Then we hung them around the school. “Every fall, wonderful aromas emanate through the hallways,” says Alisa.

How They Grew

The Harvest of Dreams project has become a positive part of the school’s culture, say administrators. “Students who have been involved from year to year can hardly wait to be sixth graders,” says Alisa. “After all, they are the key caretakers who the rest of the school looks up to. I’ve watched so many students shine in that role,” says Alisa. “It’s a real gift.” Testing and assessment are largely data driven, she explains. “But the garden is that connection with the real world that can involve the whole child. Yes, we link to the curriculum as much as we can, but the garden is also a nice diversion from all that ‘mandated-ness’!”