SALEM — Collins Middle School special education grade 6-8 student gardeners received second place and third place ribbons for their produce submissions at the Topsfield Fair Junior Fruit and Vegetable Competition last month.
The Collins students won second place in the beets category and third place in the carrots category — the vegetables were grown over the spring and summer in garden beds outside the middle school. The honors marked the second straight year Collins students came away with awards.
Last year, they won first place in the beet category and second in the carrots category. Per the competition rules, students under 18 must grow, pick, submit and arrange a minimum five types of fruits and/or vegetables themselves at their exhibit space. Fruits and vegetables are judged by trueness to type, arrangement, freedom from disease and injury, condition, and uniformity.
“We start our gardening season by germinating seeds in several ways and planting the seedlings in pots under grow lights,” said Barbara McLernon, an instructional paraprofessional educator at Collins who oversees the gardening program.
“We learn responsibility by keeping them flourishing,” she said. “In late spring we plant the seedlings and seeds outside and follow a watering schedule. Weeding can be challenging but confidence grows as the plants do.”
The gardening program at Collins continues to grow more popular, both in participation and product. With a recent grant from the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, McLernon expects continued growth.
In June, Salem Public Schools received the Massachusetts Farming Reinforces Education and Student Health through Coordination and Optimization of Resources and Partnerships initiative, which is providing Salem with $133,000 over 18 months to expand and formalize food system education for pre-K through grade 8 students.
Collins special education students grow more than a dozen vegetables including peppers, gem corn, zucchini, lettuce, spinach, peas, tomatoes and herbs, as well as sunflowers and cosmos for pollination.
With the grant, McLernon said, the gardening program can involve all of the seventh grade and allows the expansion of gardening space from 180 square feet to 340.
“We started with a small group of students several years ago and have grown to encompass the sub-separate special education groups, and now the entire seventh grade this fall,” she said.
Vegetables grown in the Collins garden beds — as well as all schools’ gardens — go straight to the school kitchen to be served to students as part of the district’s farm-to-school effort.
“The most amazing part of the season is when the students get to see and taste the vegetables,” McLernon said. “So many of our students have never seen, or know about, where fresh vegetables grow.”