WEST POINT — Oak Hill Academy assistant principal Katie Ballard wanted to supplement the school curriculum in a way that was a little beyond the norm.
In January, Ballard began a grant application through Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Mississippi Foundation in hopes of allowing Oak Hill Academy’s K3-12 students to participate in a school garden program.
“We wanted to incorporate some things other than your traditional learning environment,” Ballard said.
In April, Oak Hill Academy’s grant application was approved for the upcoming school year. The grant money provided from the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Mississippi Foundation will be used to purchase a greenhouse, tiller, fertilizer, water hoses, seeds and wood to be used for building raised garden beds. The program will focus on giving students hands-on gardening experience and nutrition education.
“Everybody is really excited because we’re all K3-12 on one campus. Everybody has a hand in everything we do,” Ballard said. “Anytime we can do something that enhances what we’re already doing in the classroom, everybody gets excited. Parents are excited and kids are excited.”
Ballard said all grades will use the greenhouse and gardens, with elementary school students having science and math coursework that will deal directly with the program, while a high school course titled “outdoor studies” will be offered that will involve various projects, such as building raised garden beds, throughout the year.
The school garden program is in its early stages at Oak Hill, as not much gardening has been done quite yet because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but Ballard took it upon herself to plant a few seeds over the summer.
“Since we were closed for the summer, nobody was up here but me,” she said. “I planted pumpkins because I knew our younger students would not be able to go to a pumpkin patch. So I planted them and planted sunflowers.”
A greenhouse will be built and will be used to plant vegetables and flowers through the winter to be ready to transplant in the spring. Each classroom will have its own shelf to track growth. The greenhouse will also be available for the public as a “plant hotel” for residents to rent a space for their outside plants in the winter.
“The greenhouse is ordered, but just like everything else you try to order right now, it’s taking a little bit of time,” Ballard said. “We hope to have the greenhouse here within the first nine weeks of school. We can start preparing things for the winter to plant next spring. We’ll plant things throughout the whole school year.”
Raised garden beds will be spread throughout the campus, and Ballard said she hopes fruit trees can be planted eventually.
Ballard said she hopes the school garden program also can be a nutritional benefit to students.
“I’m hoping that it will introduce them to some vegetables that they normally would not eat,” she said. “A lot of kids may not eat something because they’ve only seen it on a salad bar. But if they see it come out of the ground they may be more inclined to eat it, or if they’ve taken care of it they may want to try a new vegetable.”
Hodge is the former sports editor for The Dispatch.
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