Dole Packaged Foods, Bashas’ and Food City joined with the Captain Planet Foundation to bring a learning garden to the students of Higley Traditional Academy in Gilbert, Arizona, on Feb. 20.
Employees of Dole, Bashas’ and Food City joined Gilbert Vice Mayor Eddie Cook in helping teachers and students install their new Captain Planet Foundation Learning Garden.
The school’s fifth and sixth graders laid the groundwork for the garden by assembling five raised beds. Second and third graders added torn corrugated boxes as a foundation against weeds and then added the soil. Kindergartners and first graders, accompanied by fourth-grade buddies, then planted the seedlings.
Higley Traditional Academy was recently selected to receive one of two Learning Gardens (valued at $3,000) in Arizona from the Captain Planet Foundation, courtesy of Dole, Bashas’ and Food City.
The Learning Garden comes complete with lesson kits, supplies to establish a schoolyard garden, a fully-equipped garden cooking cart and strategies for garden maintenance. The program provides a context for multidisciplinary learning, ranging from nutrition and science to social studies, math and language arts. Students benefit by expanding their palates, taste-testing healthy foods and learning more about where their food comes from.
In addition to learning how to take care of their garden to produce the best fruits and vegetables and preparing a meal with their fresh-from-the-garden foods, students will gain an understanding and appreciation for what it takes to grow the different varieties of produce available at their local supermarket.
