Savannah-Chatham school gardens grow, plant seeds of learning thanks to team effort

Editor's Note: This article has been updated to identify the correct material for the garden beds as high-density polyethylene.

Pallets of bagged dirt lined the sidewalks of Savannah Early College High School’s parking lot on Saturday, Sept. 23. The dirt, high-density polyethylene garden beds, and other supplies were courtesy of Big Green’s Jumpstart program. Big Green is a nationwide nonprofit based out of Colorado. It provides scalable gardening programs supporting food literacy education to school systems and communities across the country. According to its website, the nonprofit has supported 270 schools, engaged 700 educators and helped 81,300 students, teachers and community members grow food at schools.

The Savannah High weekend event doubled as a training session for Savannah-Chatham County Public School System (SCCPSS) educators. Savannah High is one of 20 schools that have received or are set to receive $2,000 each toward community gardens. Eighteen of those schools will also receive kits for raised garden beds. Big Green representatives walked educators through the process of filling the beds and inserting the irrigation systems. Each school will eventually hold its own garden kickoff with students and community volunteers.

Director of Educational Programs, Sam Koentopp, said that the Arthur Blank Foundation provided Big Green with funding to support school gardens across Georgia. “We work with a lot of care and intention to identify school districts where there's interest, and there's capacity,” Koentopp said.

After some initial research, Big Green saw Savannah as a community that exhibited both the need and the interest. Koentopp said that he and his colleagues first connected with the University of Georgia Extension, which eventually led them to Loop It Up Savannah, a local youth arts and education nonprofit.

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Looping it all together through school gardens

Loop It Up has been working with SCCPSS for years on a variety of programming to supplement classroom learning. The organization’s core programs include Mindfulness Zone, Looping Literacy Together, STEAM Dream, and 21st Century After School. Loop It Up has also provided support and volunteers for past SCCPSS school garden initiatives.

Loop It Up founder and Executive Director Molly Lieberman said, “Many partners have worked together to build and operate gardens, which bring fresh food, well-being and educational opportunities to our neighborhoods, schools and residents. Savannah’s new relationship with Big Green brings an additional layer of resource, structure, sustainability and support to this important work, which is vital to our well-being.”

The collaboration is also an opportunity to streamline resources. Koentopp said that when Big Green first came in February 2023, the schools’ garden educators shared that they had been operating in isolated ways. “We want to use these resources as a catalyst to cultivate a more strategic, holistic, district-wide approach to supporting school guidance,” said Koentopp. He stated that Big Green has been coordinating with the SCCPSS Facilities and Operations team to organize best practices for the gardens.

James May, SCCPSS interim executive director of maintenance and operations, excitedly watched as volunteers, students and educators put together the modular garden beds this past Saturday. “The biggest thing is that the students have that knowledge of the garden-to-table concept.”

He said that the goals of the gardens are multifaceted, but the main focus is on making healthy food choices. He said students will plant foods indigenous to the Savannah area.

Shawn Hearn, Liberal Studies teacher and the garden club mentor at Savannah High, has previously spoken to the media about gardens as Living Learning Labs for STEAM study. His students adhere to the farming practices of indigenous people. “We don’t use pesticides. We use inter-planting and co-planting.”

The items grown in Savannah High’s gardens are used by the school’s culinary arts students. May said, “The genesis for [the program] was started with Woodville-Tompkins High School’s culinary arts program. The majority of our schools now offer these type of career pathways.”

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Learning beyond food education

While volunteers and educators dumped bags of dirt into the pre-formed garden beds, Koentopp encouraged educators to think about how students could explore the components of soil while putting their school's beds together. Students could feel or smell the dirt. He clarified that the bagged dirt was not technically soil.

He pointed to the ground underneath the beds. “This is soil. Its made up of minerals, aggregates, organic matter, water, air. The sand at the beach is soil.” He then pointed to the bagged dirt. “This is a growing media that has been engineered to grow fruits and vegetables really well in a container.” He explained that the bagged mixture works better for potted gardening than the dirt from our backyards because it contains perlite, or volcanic ash pellets, that hold air and water.

In addition to science instruction, garden-based classes can be used for art or design lessons. Lieberman provided packets that guide instructors through mindfulness activities that teachers could implement, as well.

Hearn shared that Savannah High art classes had already worked out designs that they will paint onto the modular beds. He also said that the welding class students have prepared a bench they will affix to one of the beds.

“There are so many applications,” he said. “We can use them as a part of our STEAM program, as well as a bit of sanctuary for the staff and students.” Hearn also shared that he secured funding and approval for an agricultural science teacher to provide that pathway at Savannah High. The pathway introduces Future Farmers of America and other programs that allow for matriculation towards careers in agriculture, science and technology.

Dianna Zeegers, Big Green vice president of programs, showed off books like Zora’s Zucchini or Sylvia’s Spinach, which are published by Readers to Eaters, which uses literature to promote conversations about growing, cooking and eating food. “So teachers have the ability to incorporate literacy components into garden lessons,” she said.  Zeegers highlighted a book that is framed more like a graphic novel, called Farmer Will Allen and the Growing Table, which targets an older audience than some of the other books.

The biggest selling point to SCCPSS was likely the cost of all these resources and new learning opportunities.  “This is a district-wide event,” May said of the garden starter kits and Big Green kickoff. “The beds are so lightweight and so easy to move and install. And they're durable. It all has been a really, really low cost for the district. Almost none.”

May talked about his devoted operations team members who had worked behind the scenes to make sure all the supplies, pallets of dirt, and beds were on site early Saturday. Other than that labor, Big Green has supplied just about everything else through its collaboration with Loop It Up.

Joseph Schwartzburt is the education and workforce development reporter for Savannah Morning News. You can reach him at jschwartzburt@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah-Chatham school gardens foster learning thanks to team effort