Montessori students in Gurnee use garden to give back to others

The students at Country Meadows Montessori School have donated more than 100 pounds of produce harvested from the Country Meadows Giving Garden to the Mount Sinai Baptist Church Food Pantry in North Chicago.

The garden was established in the spring of 2014 through a grant received from Katie's Krops of Summerville, North Carolina.

The fifth- and sixth-grade Montessori students wrote the grant expressing interest in growing produce to help hungry local families after raising funds for the Northern Illinois Food Bank and volunteering for Feed My Starving Children and the Lake County Forest Preserve Giving Dinner.

The garden provided a direct, hands-on connection and enriched understanding of the good work that can be achieved through a community effort.

"This is a good way to help. I plan on helping in every way possible," said Helene, a sixth- grader who helped to write the grant.

The Giving Garden was supported by the entire Country Meadows Montessori School community. Preschool students from 3-6 years old planted seeds last spring, which were transplanted by the second-grade students into the raised garden bed built by the fifth- and sixth-grade students.

Odessa Williams of the Mount Sinai Food Pantry was impressed by the age, youth, and enthusiasm of the children who tended the garden.

"It gave us such pride to know it came from the children of the school," she said. "We will now try to work with the youth at the church to let them be part of the process and have a better insight into the life process."

Mary O'Young, administrator of Country Meadows Montessori School, embraced the Giving Garden as an example of how "children learn through experience. Building garden boxes, planting seeds, watering, caring for the little plants, and now the harvest to share with people who will appreciate our efforts, is what community is all about," she said.

Katie's Krops has been awarding grants over the past four years to enable and empower kids to make a difference.

"We really strive to introduce kids to agriculture and environment, while teaching responsibility and compassion," said Katie Stagliano, founder of Katie's Krops.

Katie's Krops was founded in 2008 by Stagliano, who was only 9 years old when she nurtured a cabbage seedling that grew to 40 pounds. She then donated her special cabbage to a local soup kitchen, where it fed more than 275 people.

Stagliano is the youngest recipient of the Clinton Global Citizen Award for Leadership in Civil Society. Country Meadows Montessori School has been privileged to help Katie in her quest to end hunger one garden at a time.

Third-grade student Nicolas said, "It makes us proud to help others and we really like being outside."

Country Meadows Montessori offers a family supported atmosphere where children from 12 months to 14 years can grow and prosper. Country Meadows is a private, not-for-profit school at 6151 Washington St., Gurnee.

For more information about any of the programs, visit www.cmmontessori.net, call (847) 244-9352, or email j_harkaway@cmmontessori.net.