Alcott Elementary's Teaching Garden

Learning about food from the ground up. That's what the students at Alcott Elementary School are doing. <br/><br/>As News on 6 reporter Rick Wells explains, a grant from Vision 2025 and some help

Thursday, September 28th 2006, 10:24 am

By: News On 6

Learning about food from the ground up. That's what the students at Alcott Elementary School are doing.

As News on 6 reporter Rick Wells explains, a grant from Vision 2025 and some help from the community, the students are building an edible classroom.

The Alcott 4th graders are pulling up grass. They are pulling up and raking out weeds and Bermuda grass to make way for a garden.

Demalda Newsome with the North Tulsa EATS project got a grant from Vision 2025. EATS stands for Empowering Access, Teaching Sustainability. This whole project is about nutrition and food from the ground up. "To be able to grow their own food and not be food deficient."

Right now, it's more about clearing the land. They had to remove the grass and the rocks. The more grass they pulled up, the more rocks they found, so they raked up the rocks too.

This is not their only garden; they have planting areas all over. Each one will have food but other native plants as well and it's not just for the kids.

Alcott teacher Jennifer Holder: "any available parent that wants to come out we invite them to come out any local businesses that want to come out come out and be a part of this."

There's lots left to do, they'll start seeds in the classroom and to transplant in the spring.

They still need volunteer labor and plenty of materials.

1. Oklahoma native plants
2. Seeds and potted plants
3. Lumber for grow boxes
4. Mulch
5. Compost and garden soil
6. Tomato cages and garden posts
7. Water barrels
8. Garden tools
9. Paint for outdoor mural
10. Garden volunteers