Garden Club renews the school garden with after-school cleanups every Friday behind the 200 building to create a new environment and sell grown produce.

Picture of the school garden last year (left) compared to the state of the current garden as students begin to reorganize and clean the area (right). Photo credit: Christian Balmaceda, Katherine Bui

Throughout the pandemic, the school garden was untended. Post-COVID-19, the club is starting anew with future goals.

“The garden grew a lot of weeds and we are trying to clean up the garden beds and rejuvenate the soil so that’s our plan through January,” Wellness Center Coordinator Dani Octon explains.

The garden club started up again at the beginning of the school year with the help of the club advisors Dani Octon and MFLC Counselor Audrey Teshima. The club looked for new officers and board members to start fresh.

“We’ve been recruiting for the last two months and we finally have a small group so we’re moving a little slow,” Octon said.

The group of students has put in the effort to take care of the garden to get ready to apply for the district’s “Farm to School” program. 

“We’re cleaning up the garden in order to have a nice place and environment to plant new things and are hoping to be able to sell some of our produce to the students” Garden Club Member Isis Durante explained.

Some of the produce can be used as salad bar options for students during lunch called Garden to Café. The program runs nationwide to bring local produce to communities and schools as well as provide nutrition education.

“Our Farm to School person at the district, her name is Janelle Manzano, and she goes into classrooms and does taste tests, harvest of the month, and nutrition education with topics for teens like sports drinks and protein,” Octon said.

Students learn about nutrition and get to be involved in the process of tasting and growing local produce.

Not all of the gardening work is done by students. With the help of their own “Master Gardener”, the club works to provide the best school garden available.

They meet in the garden during lunch on Tuesdays and after school on Fridays behind Mr. DeVore’s classroom at the 200 building. With their new members, the garden club will hopefully rebuild the gardening community here at school.