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Local Teens Use School Garden To Feed Peers

Students at a Punta Gorda high school are seeing - and eating - the results of a new gardening program. Florida Southwestern Collegiate High School faculty said it teaches the teens responsibility and problem-solving skills,  while also putting food on the table for community members. The students first harvested their vegetables and herbs on a Wednesday morning this month. 

Credit Jessica Meszaros / WGCU
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WGCU
This is biology teacher Michael Mitchell's class garden. It's one of the school's 10 above-ground plots .

Joshua Upright is a 10th grader at FSW Collegiate High-- it shares  the Charlotte County campus with FSW State College.Upright waters his class garden during study period every day. 

"I do a lot of the watering early on in the morning because I like to get my homework done at my house. So then instead of using study hall for studying, I prefer to use it for coming out and gardening," said Upright.

There are 10 above-ground gardens behind the high school building-- each represent a separate class. Some have hot pink zinnias, orange marigolds and yellow sunflowers that are swarming with bees.

Credit Jessica Meszaros / WGCU
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WGCU
Bees swarm around the garden's sunflowers.

The students grow sugar snap peas, cucumbers and radishes, just to name a few. 

"This is Swiss chard," said 10th grader Bremen Sexton, pointing to a leafy plant that hovers about a foot above the soil. "We have broccoli. Over here, we have a mixture of carrots and cilantro."

Sexton oversees his class garden. 

"It’s been really fun 'cause it's different," he said. "And it's a new activity to do in school. We've  been seeing the results of our work and it's really nice to see that."
 

Credit Jessica Meszaros / WGCU
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WGCU
Mitchell's student George Pallivathuckal harvesting the Swiss chard.

Biology teacher Michael Mitchell said this idea originally came from the science and environmental club, and then it grew from there.

"The ultimate goal is to get students out of the classroom-- have them do some critical thinking where they can realize ‘Oh hey, if we plant these plants too close together, we're not going to get a good product.’ Let them do some troubleshooting some problem solving," said Mitchell. 

Solving problems like a couple of intertwined carrots Bremen Sexton plucked from the soil. 

Credit Jessica Meszaros / WGCU
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WGCU
Bremen Sexton pulls two bonded carrots that were planted too close together.

"So do you see why we want to separate and thin them out before they get big?" Mitchell asked Sexton. "So it allows them to get big when you have enough space."

Mitchell said there are about five students in his study period that are dedicated to gardening and have “green thumbs.” They plan to donate some of the flowers to local nursing homes someday. But this is the first time they’re harvesting veggies and herbs for the school’s kitchen located on the college campus. 

"It's actually kind of exciting because we're putting food on the table, and I've actually never done that for being 15 so it's pretty fun," said Sexton. 

Michael Mitchell asked his students to snip a couple sprigs of rosemary to top off the filled Tupperware containers before bringing them to the college kitchen. It's about a five-minute walk from the garden to the cafeteria. 

Eric Durst runs the campus’ kitchen. He said this is the first time his kitchen has had freshly picked produce.

"I think it's a good practicality for the kids to learn how to take care of vegetables and for us to use it in the kitchen," said Durst." Just off the bat, I think with the carrots, we'll probably start off with a chicken soup. The squash I see we have here we'll probably do maybe a sautéed vegetable of some sort for lunch. And the herbs we can use just about anything."

Two minutes later, a cook, who is also Eric Durst’s wife, popped in the kitchen. Barbara Durst needed rosemary for a sauce recipe.
 

Credit Jessica Meszaros / WGCU
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WGCU
FSW cafeteria cook Barbara Durst chopped the newly harvested rosemary donated by the teens for a sauce recipe.

  "I’m making a sauce for my almond chicken, which is gonna be Dijon with maple, rosemary, some onion powder," said Barbara Durst. 

She finely chopped the freshly picked rosemary, and whisked it into her sauce pot. 

"It smells delicious," she said. "It's so nice to have fresh food. Much better than the kind you buy at the store."

The almond chicken is the day's lunch for students or faculty in the high school and college.  But Michael Mitchell, the biology teacher, said it’s not just about feeding the campus. He said he hopes for a bigger harvest. 

"Then we'll send these off to maybe some of the food pantries so that they could have some fresh vegetables," said Mitchell. 

He said the students will now learn how to properly spread out the plants as they grow. And eventually they’ll figure out a crop rotation to bring in some new vegetables.

Credit Jessica Meszaros / WGCU
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WGCU
Biology teacher Michael Mitchell observes 10th grader Bremen Sexton's carrot harvest.

Jessica Meszaros is a reporter and host of Morning Edition at WUSF Public Media, and former reporter and host of All Things Considered for WGCU News.