Back to School the Green Way

By Kelley Moen, 9-02-08

It’s not easy being green, so a school in Bend has given the task to returning students once again.

At Westside Village Magnet School on Kingston Avenue in Bend, gardening has been part of the curriculum for the past eight seasons, according to a report in the Bend Bulletin.

The school uses green-thumb amenities, like a greenhouse for growing tomatoes and peppers, a pond that will become a solar-powered water feature and fruit trees, to teach kids and use what principal Wendy Winchel calls the “outdoor classroom”. 

She says that the 70-by-100 foot garden, originally a weedy lot next to the west side school, will teach kids a lifelong skill of gardening and help them to understand ecosystems.

According to the National Gardening Association, “Gardening benefits kids’ health and well-being, their attitudes towards learning and the environment, and their connections to community.”

In addition, NGA data says that kids may learn about science, math, nutrition and literacy better in the garden than in the classroom.

According to the association’s studies, school gardens make better eaters, too.  It says that more than 90 percent of parents whose children have access to a school garden reported their children eat more fruits and vegetables as a result of garden participation.

Since 1973, the NGA has been working to renew and sustain important links between people, plants, and the environment through adult and youth gardening.  Every year, the organization supports more than 178,000 educators with curriculum, free Web publications, grants and awards.

The NGA’s GROW campaign aims to increase awareness of, appreciation for, and participation in gardening. GROW promotes opportunities for people to begin gardening and encourages existing gardeners to become more involved in home, school, and community garden activities.

At Bend’s Westside Village Magnet School, the gardens are mostly organic, with bread and vegetable scraps from school lunches, earthworms and all. 

The school’s principal hopes to raise enough produce so that they can put their own locally-grown vegetables on the school lunch menu.