LANCASTER, N.Y. — Students at Como Park Elementary School in Lancaster harvested vegetables and flowers that they grew in their school garden.
Teachers and students planted the seeds last spring and school families took care of the garden over the summer vacation.
Jacque Galas is a second-grade teacher and the school garden manager, she was one of the pioneers of the school garden, working with the Parent Teacher Organization and Whole Foods to build the garden. Galas said, "So a few years ago I secured us a garden grant through Whole Foods, which supplied us with the shed, some of the rain barrels, and also some tools for the kids to be able to use in the garden,".
"The most interesting thing is, if a child is maybe struggling in the classroom, in academics you would never know it in the garden, they come out here and they are harvesting and finding things and they are making connections. It's a beautiful thing," Galas said. She enjoys watching how the students light up when they come out and work together in the garden.
The vegetables that the students harvested today will be incorporated into their school lunch on Friday. Galas said, "Miss Margie, in the cafeteria, she and I will get together in the spring and talk about what we might want to grow for the next harvest season because she prepares it for them."
Delphine Abell is a second grader at Como Park, she loves coming out to the garden and helping out her teachers. Abell said, "We are looking at all the stuff and we are picking some and we are picking flowers."
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