Farm stands are hardly an uncommon sight to Columbia Heights residents. But the market in the Columbia Heights Public Schools Family Center is a bit different: It’s run by elementary school students and high schoolers.
On August 12, the bi-weekly stand closed its summer season. Four students were helping sell the fruits of their labors: Bok choy, apples, flowers and more. Everything on the table was pulled from a student-maintained garden — a program that doubles as a way for students to learn a thing or two about agriculture.
“The Blooming Heights Garden has existed for fifteen years,” explains Melissa Trent.
Trent, a full-time agriculture specialist with Columbia Heights Public Schools, teaches students across the district about flora and fauna alike.
“If kids are exposed to growing their own fruits and vegetables, they’re much more likely to eat them,” she explained.
The Blooming Heights Edible Schoolyard and Outdoor Classroom, which sits next to the Family Center, has a variety of raised beds filled with flowers, herbs and vegetables. The area also features a small group of fruit-bearing trees.
Columbia Heights students gardening in the Blooming Heights Edible Schoolyard and Outdoor Classroom. (Columbia Heights Public Schools)
“We show the variety of foods we can grow,” Trent continued. “I try to teach about how we’re all interconnected, and how we all rely on one another.”
Trent works year-round to teach “food, gardening and culture.” She runs an “outdoor classroom” from early spring until late autumn; in the winter, she visits students in their classrooms.
“I think of myself as an on-site field trips provider,” Trent explained. “My job is to enhance what students are already learning. Anything they can learn inside four walls they can also learn in an outdoor classroom.” She partners with teachers to help students learn “basic science principles and geography — where different foods come from.” Ideally, she said, “every student in K-5 should see me at least three times a year.”
The curriculum varies based on the students’ ages. In kindergarten, Trent says, they help students make apple cider and learn about worms by digging in the dirt; eventually, that progresses into “insect anatomy, compost and decomposing insects.” Additionally, students spend time studying leaf shapes and sizes so they know what to pull from the gardens.
Trent pointed towards a “seed-saving relay” as a recent example. Students were shown two plants — a dill plant and a cilantro plant, both of which had gone to seed. “We passed them around, smelled them, tasted them,” she said. “Then the students competed for five minutes to see who could collect the most.
“At the end, the kids were like, ‘Can we eat these seeds?’ Because we had talked about how they came from dill. I let them try them — it’s a safe plant to eat, and they’re curious about it… To hear them describe a seed they can eat is really unique.”
As for the market itself, Trent made sure to highlight the high schoolers. She said the program gave older youth opportunities to grow their communication skills and feel like leaders. “The little kids look up to the older kids,” she said. “They have an opportunity to bond and look side by side.
“It helps both the older and younger kids feel like they matter, like they have an important role and that they can affect change.”