A group of Kutztown Elementary fifth graders harvested food from their school garden, donating to Friend Inc.’s food pantry.
“I thought there was enough that we could share it with people who don’t have enough food to eat,” said garden co-founder Lisa Schnell to the fifth graders, explaining that Friend Inc. hosts a food pantry for those in need.
“This is a way the school can help,” said Schnell. “You can give money, you can give food and you can give your time. Since we have a lot of extra chard I thought let’s donate that to Friend.”
Students harvested the chard, twisting off stalks of leaves and stems. They collected several large bag fulls to donate.
“I’m really excited that we get to donate to Friend this year,” said Schnell, whose family has volunteered for the non-profit organization. “They do great work in the community and for the school to have enough extra to be able to share with the community, I’m happy the students are learning about that, too. That there’s people who don’t have necessarily as much as they do and they can help them pretty easily.”
Fifth grader Kaydence Wessner, 10, said donating to Friend is a good idea, “because some people don’t really have a lot to eat. It makes me feel good (to help).”
Olivia Wanner, 10, fifth grade, also likes how they can help people through Friend. “They don’t have a lot of stuff and we need to help them.”
Run by volunteer parents, students and teachers as well as part of classroom projects and lessons, the Kutztown Elementary school garden included tomatoes, chard, corn, beans, pumpkins, herbs, to name a few items, from which a harvest meal was prepared for a student lunch.
“The students have been really excited about tasting some of the food that we grow here and we’re also hoping to teach them a little bit of natural history about the plants that grow in Pennsylvania naturally,” she said.
The garden was established in 2011 with support of former Principal Tracy Blunt, teachers, families and students. In addition to vegetables, there is a rain garden and a native plant bed, all housed within the enclosed school courtyard and maintained by volunteers.
Among the lessons, Schnell hopes KES students learn “that it’s easy to grow your own food and healthy food tastes good.”