Theme: Service Learning
— Helping Kids and Communities Grow
Learning to Give, Giving
to Learn
Gardens and soup kitchens nurture responsible youth
by Barbara E. Richardson
A science teacher for 21 years at Ashland Middle School in
Ashland, OR, Eric Sandrock is also a lifelong gardener. Early
in his career, he mused, "There's so much living science
to explore in the soil and garden. Why grow mold in a Petri
dish in the classroom when it grows on its own outside?" So
he dragged his class of eighth graders across the train tracks
to a vacant lot and they started digging.
What he envisioned as a quick hand-tilling job turned into
a real excavation project. The gravelly soil in the region,
which is notorious for fusing like concrete, had students
complaining that he was making them dig up a parking
lot. But within three
years they had built a rich soil and an impressive garden.
Eric seized the opportunity for community service connections
right away. He and the kids brainstormed what to do with the
produce they harvested, and decided to donate it for local
hunger relief. "When my class did a food and nutrition
study, students discovered that potatoes have the highest food
value per acre of any crop we could grow," says Eric.
What better vehicle for fighting hunger and educating the public,
to boot?
Spud Challenge
From these humble beginnings, the Grow a Potato for Hunger
project sprouted. Every elementary student in the district
was encouraged to plant a potato at one of two school garden
sites, and then donate their harvest to those in need. "After
learning how to plant potatoes, my eighth graders showed
all of the elementary kids how to do it," says Eric. "We
tended the gardens all summer and my new eighth graders harvested
them in the fall."
The project got tremendous press, and was even featured at
the touring International Art Show to End World Hunger. "Journalism
students at South Medford High School wrote and produced a
newsletter for our project that included instructions for planting
potatoes. It was also a nice tool for teaching about local,
national, and international hunger issues," says Eric.
Lessons Take Root
Since then, Eric's students have focused their efforts locally
— on the middle school's garden and the contributions it
can make to the school and the wider community. He says the
students have about half the responsibility for planning
the 3/4-acre of gardens. "I come up with general guidelines
and the kids give input. We discuss relative merits of crops
and try to come to consensus on the best way to proceed." Much
of the food, fresh from the garden, makes its way into the
school cafeteria.
Another focus of the students' efforts is donating produce
to Access Food Shares, which distributes donations to the hungry
of the Rouge Valley region. When the Access coordinator brings
members of the local media out to cover the harvest, the kids
see that their efforts are being recognized and that their
contributions inspire others in the community to do the same.
Eric is ever-alert for teaching opportunities. "When
the ground squirrel and gopher populations boomed, we talked
about how to approach the situation, and decided that we would
monitor to see if the rodents were really a problem, or if
we could coexist." The group determined that the critters
were not too troublesome, and decided to live and let live. "When
they hear me complain about some rodent damage in the garden,
the kids are quick to remind me that we made a deliberate decision."
Service Nurtures Connections
For a number of years, the school offered a summer gardening
and service project for 10 to 16 students with a variety
of disabilities. They've since seen the funding for their
special education teachers dry up, but the program continues
thanks to Eric's volunteer effort. "A core group of
four to eight students in grades 6 to 9 show up regularly;
they'll take on anything — even shoveling lots of manure
to feed the soil," he explains. "They want to be
there. They feel accomplished, a part of something that’s
valuable to the world at large, and they gain a sense of
pride. It's tremendous for these kids." A former class
member who is now a high-school junior shows up regularly,
too, to fulfill some of the 100 hours of community service
time required by the high school.
Eric requires all of his students to do 50 hours of community
service per year. One of his eighth graders volunteered 2 hours
every Tuesday night for two years at a soup kitchen. "He's
famous for the number of hours he chalked up," says Eric.
But this student didn't do it just to fulfill a duty. "The
regulars recognized me, and got to know me by name," he
says. "I loved it."
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© 2009
National Gardening Association