Lake Contrary Community Garden

In an effort to bring together schools, the community, and families we recently established a community garden. The garden’s purpose is to enhance the healthy living of communities, reduce family food budgets, teach gardening skills, provide advanced opportunities for inquiry learning in science, and to promote positive community and family engagement. These photographs chronicle our adventure to establish the Lake Contrary Elementary Community Garden.

 

Our school, Lake Contrary Elementary, joined forces with several community agencies to establish our garden such as The Youth Health Partnership, Heartland Hospital, and Chamber of Commerce. Our business partners were a tremendous help, thank you Wyatt Park Christian Church, Walmart, and Omnium.

 

This site was chosen for the community garden because of the access to water and storage.

 

Installation of fencing. Funding for our community garden is made possible by a federal grant.

 

Planting Day begins! We invited community members, parents, and of course students to participate in ourground breaking and planting.

 

Nona Miller, our Family Involvement Coordinator, was the core to our gardening team. She taught students how to map out a garden, how to plant, and provided the experience and knowledge needed to begin a successful garden. Here she joins students in prepping the garden.

 

Dr. Melody Smith, Superintendent of the Saint Joseph School District led the ribbon cutting ceremony for our community garden groundbreaking. She is joined by our Lake Contrary students.

 

The community gathers in our outdoor classroom.

 

The look of learning.

 

Ready to dig!

 

Teachers and students working side-by-side.

 

Being physically active and planting nutritious food.

 

Our amazing parents and families joining in the efforts.

 

Gardeners big and small.

 

Serving healthy refreshments.

 

At the end of the day…

At the end of the day we provided a lifetime of memories, built new partnerships, provided authentic learning experiences, and established a garden sure to grow much more than food!