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School garden flourishing at Clayton Ridge
Posted: July 27, 2010
By M.J. Smith, Freelance Writer
A group of Clayton Ridge students together with their teacher, Dana Einck, and school nurse Ranae Kraus, RN, have planted potatoes for the annual Homecoming Day Grill-out.
Think onions, butter, salt and pepper to flavor slices of Yukon Gold and Blue Potatoes. These are two of the varieties now blooming and growing at a first-ever school garden on a G and G Living Centers plot near the corner of Kosciusco and the Great River Road.
Clayton Ridge Consumer Science Teacher Dana Einck told The Press, "The spark came from the Northeast Iowa Food and Fitness Initiative (FFI) but this was all the students' idea. It was that busy week we were leaving for Florida. They decided to plant a garden. I told them I would be there to support them, if they were willing to do the work; but this was their project."
So far, the students' enthusiasm has sprouted as fast as their green and yellow zucchini in the garden.
Kayla Nuehring was one of the early leaders. She recruited her dad and grandpa, Clay and Ronnie Nuehring to help. They had a tiller and agreed to work up the school plot. Other student gardeners include Lindsey Andregg, Tristan Randall, Hilliary Morarend, Kayla Otto, and Mallory Tujetsch.
Master Gardener Kay Vifian and her husband Vic Vifian supplied seeds and seedlings from their Nature Haven farm, which is located just north of Guttenberg on the Great River Road.
Einck explained, "Our unique potato varieties came from Seed Savers, and are part of an heirloom collection. So far, the students have been very faithful to the weeding and care of the garden. We are all excited to share the yield when school starts in the fall."
Lindsey Andregg's family has a tiller and she has pull-started the garden imple-ment to keep weeds at bay during the rainy early summer growing season.
The students are all learning something about leadership as they tend the garden from planting to harvest.
What is the FFI?
School nurse Ranae Kraus told The Press, "Working with the Food and Fitness project over the past several years, I have seen our kids take more and more initiative. It has been fun to see it take off and make a difference."
School gardens are just one of the projects inspired by the Northeast Iowa Food and Fitness Initiative.
The FFI is a six-county project funded by the WK Kellogg Foundation. After two years of community planning, the vision of the $1.2 million initiative, to create vibrant communities where the healthy choice is the easy choice, is now focused on three community strategies, including what is called Farm to School.
What is Farm to School?
Think about this bold vision for change and ask yourself what could be wrong with this picture? Clayton Ridge middle school students are eating apples and carrots grown in their own community. Do apples have to be shipped from orchards in Michigan? Continue with the image. Kindergarteners are eating pork burgers, made from ground pork produced in their district. Do meat selections have to be transported in from processing plants in Chicago? High school students help prepare and grill vegetables from the school garden on Homecoming Day; the potato chips and packaging are all gone.
Get the idea? These changes represent economic opportunities for local growers and producers and at the same time improve nutrition for a generation of students who are plagued by alarming rates of obesity. Lowering carbon emissions through the reduction of food processing and transportation are added benefits of this strategy, even as it is implemented in an incremental way.
Six school districts in Northeast Iowa have been chosen to be Farm to School pilot schools for the first year of the Food & Fitness Initiative grant.
Currently, Starmont is this pilot for Clayton County. But Clayton Ridge is not far behind, thanks to these visionary student and faculty leaders.
$500 cash award for next project
What's next for Clayton Ridge? Dana Enick, Ranae Kraus and their students are already planting seeds for the next steps to improve student health. Kraus applied for and received a $500 Go the Distance Day Award to continue fitness strategies. Could it be seed money for a bike trail? The students' wheels are turning; they can already see it happening.
Making healthy choices the easy choice is a vision taking shape all over Northeast Iowa; and progress will only continue with cooperation from the School Food Service staff, administration, the school board and the community.
