Westfield school's new veggie garden produces life lessons

A project at Westfield Community School in Algonquin is teaching students about the origin of their food, while also helping families in need.

Elementary students on Thursday dedicated a vegetable garden that they will tend throughout the remainder of the school year. Volunteer and community groups are needed to look after the garden during the summer.

Led by Michelle Soland, a third-grade teacher at Westfield, the project aims to accomplish goals as set by community leaders, teachers, parents and business owners.

Those goals include: connecting students to their environment; raising nutrition awareness; helping students understand how food is grown; and bringing awareness to hunger issues in the community.

Nancy Zettler, a parent who volunteered with the project, said the school consulted with the Algonquin-Lake in the Hills Food Pantry to determine the organization's needs.

“We planted the vegetables the food pantry told us they could use and also based on storage,” Zettler said. “We want vegetables that can sit out without having to be refrigerated.”

For the past few weeks, students have nurtured the vegetables from seedlings in a small greenhouse.

Fifth-grader Isabel Bernardi, 11, said students planted tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, beans, peppers, cucumbers and sunflowers.

“They are going to the food pantry because some people don't have enough food to care for their families,” Bernardi said. “It would be helpful to grow a lot because we don't need it as much as they do.”

In addition, middle school students in Beta Club helped build the four, 4-by-8-foot raised garden beds. Each elementary grade will be assigned a bed to care for, and younger students will team up with older grades.

Maggie Corbett, a 12-year-old seventh-grader, said the food pantry can use the fresh vegetables.

“A lot of people don't have a lot of money to buy food,” Corbett said. “This will help them get food that they can eat.”

Zettler, the volunteer parent, said the vegetable garden would feed about 20 families.

“We are hoping this works out and we can expand it to other schools in the district next year,” Zettler said. “Eventually we want to get to a point where we don't have to provide all of the food and students can start taking some home, too.”

The garden was made possible through donations and volunteer time from Teles Landscaping, Bernardi landscape, Platt Hill Nursery, Home Depot of Algonquin, Home State Bank and Algonquin Garden Club.