Junior gardener program yields tasty harvest
Daniel Martynowicz
Daniel Martynowicz
Daniel Martynowicz
Kylee Coffman waters plants at K. William Harvey Elementary’s after school program in Ronan.
Daniel Martynowicz
Daniel Martynowicz
Daniel Martynowicz
While everyone else was heading back to the classroom, these students hung back to give their plants a little extra water.
Daniel Martynowicz
Green, leafy plants grow tall as an example of students’ hard work at K. William Harvey Elementary School.
Daniel Martynowicz
Some of Anna Luke’s after-school club class, Colton Graham, Ashlie Welker, Hannah Rowe, Mikayla Caye and Sariel Sandoval, pose next to a pot filled with soon-to-be carrots.
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MISSION VALLEY — Many Flathead Reservation students are learning the value of a hard day’s work and the pride that comes along with it through the Flathead Reservation Extension Office’s Junior Master Gardener Program.
The program is based around a Texas A&M University curriculum and meets state benchmarks for science, math and art, teaching students about gardening, biology, how to be self sufficient and how to take pride in growing your own food.
“It is just a wonderful curriculum and the kids have just absorbed it like kids do — they’re sponges,” laughed program assistant Brenda Richey. “The gardening has just been phenomenal.”
The extension office purchased a gardening grow station complete with grow lights, dirt and other such amenities for Glacier View School, one of the participating grade schools. Students perform experiments, grow a garden and learn year-round.
Two weeks ago, the Glacier View School Board announced their intention to work toward purchasing a second hand greenhouse so the students could continue gardening outdoors during Montana winters.
Richey said the school board has been very supportive, covering the cost of the class and helping organize events. When students finish a chapter in the book, they earn a pin during a ceremony with family and friends.
“Those kids just take off; they’re smart,” Richey said. “They remember stuff that was taught to them months ago and can recite it at will.”
The program relies on several volunteers to help teach students. All volunteers are graduates of the extension office’s Master Gardener program.
Seven years ago, Rene Kittle became an extension educator with the Flathead Reservation Extension office. Shortly after, she started the Junior Master Gardener program and hasn’t looked back.
“There’s been a disconnect with children and agriculture. We’re so used to everything coming from the grocery store, we don’t know how a tomato looks on the vine,” Kittle said. “That’s a whole new thing for many of them, and we find that they eat more nutritious when they eat food they’ve grown themselves. They’re more likely to try new things (too) when they’ve grown them themselves, and there’s a pride in it.
“I think school gardens have a big impact not only in the classroom, but in the way children eat.”
Richey said she will sometimes ask students where ice cream comes from because, “who doesn’t like ice cream?” The answer she commonly gets is, “from the grocery store,” or, “milk.” She’ll then ask them where milk comes from, the answer being a cow. The process of deconstructing food to its roots is something educators try to tie into their curriculum. The concept is essential to the program’s success.
“Teaching them how to provide for themselves through this program is a big goal,” Richey said.
Nicki Jimenex, a Food Corps service member at Mission Mountain Food Enterprise Center and 4-H Flathead Extension Office volunteer, helps teach the program at K. William Harvey Elementary School in Ronan. Jimenez said she believes the students have a lot of fun with the program, especially the hands-on gardening.
“I think that’s a great way for them to learn,” Jimenez said. “Especially in the after school environment after they’ve been sitting in class all day.”
Several of Jimenez’s students told her they’re now growing things at home with their families as a result of the program.
“That’s always cool to hear about,” she said. “They’re making connections to what they’re doing with the after school program and what they’re doing with their families at home. Growing food and gardening is a really great way to get kids to not only know where the food comes from, but if they grow food then they’re much more likey to try it because they’re excited they get to eat it.
“Hopefully they can take that excitement and apply it later in life as they go on to develop healthy eating habits.”
Jimenez added that there are a lot of ways to incorporate gardens into school curriculums to enrich student learning, especially through the classes the Flathead Extension Office offers.
“The old adage goes, ‘train up a child the way you’d like them to go,’” Richey said. “We’d like to see these kids become adult gardeners and keep that local food growing and sustainability knowledge, allowing those children to become parents and grandparents and pass that knowledge on. It’s a financial and economic ability the kids will appreciate later ... when you can grow your own carrots and potatoes, you don’t have to buy them from a grocery store.”
