Digging Up the Dirt: Crosswinds Students Rock Gardening Club
Students at Crosswinds Arts & Science School aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty; at least not those in the garden club. For the past few months, a group of dedicated students has been meeting after school (yep, Crosswinds has school year-round!) to plant, weed and harvest their very own school garden. Catalyst helped fund the gardening club through it's mini-grant program.

Crosswinds' super cool garden consists of a variety of vegetables, including carrots, collard greens, radishes, lettuce, tomatoes and more. After harvesting the vegetables, students wash them and hand them over to Crosswind’s cooks, who steam, stir-fry, broil and bake them into tasty lunch concoctions. Much of the harvested veggies go straight into Crosswind’s new salad bar. Students then get to enjoy extremely fresh vegetables, picked by their very own classmates.

From learning how to garden, to having the opportunity to provide fresh food to their school, there are tons of different reasons why Crosswinds students chose to join the gardening club. One reason, however, seemed to resound loud and clear from all members: gardening is fun. 
“Gardening lets me get my hands dirty,” said one student, “and when you get your hands dirty, you can have a lot more fun.” 

• school
• garden
• crosswinds
• student
• led
• mini-grant