Students dig into education

MANATEE COUNTY — In a small kitchen at Center Montessori School, 10-year-old Emma Wilbur carefully chops cabbage with a butcher’s knife.

Students from Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine’s Lakewood Ranch campus watch Emma to make sure she doesn’t cut her fingers, and once finished, they toss the cabbage in a bowl for the next group to finish making coleslaw.

“I like it; I like tasting (things),” Emma said of the experience. “I didn’t like coleslaw much, but when we made it here, I started to like it.”

Although children at Montessori have always enjoyed cooking and gardening as part of their curriculum, they now are enjoying an even better recipe — one that partners the school with students from LECOM’s Integrated Medicine Club through the Center Montessori’s Edible Schoolyard Program.

LECOM volunteers headed to the Center Montessori April 14 to help children dry seeds, pull weeds, dig garden plots and even prepare lunch. In the future, medical students even will be helping to dig garden plots, among other tasks.

“The gardening project provides an education and rewarding opportunity for both (groups),” LECOM’s Dr. Oren Rosenthal said. “Our medical students are providing a service to the community and seeing a real alternative for children that are growing up in a processed fast food culture.”

Center Montessori’s new Edible Schoolyard Program developed as a result of teacher Jayne Cobb’s involvement in the group Slow Food Greater Sarasota, an organization that promotes food that is “good, clean and fair.”

Cobb, through the organization, visited the Edible Schoolyard Academy in California last summer and now is bringing concepts from the academy to schools in the area, including Center Montessori.

“Our goal this year has been to create spaces across our campus that are completely cultivated by the students and utilized by our food program,” Center Montessori Administrator Mara Fulk said. “This part of the program and our partnership with LECOM is geared toward increasing our gardens on campus, as well as our 10-acre land lab on State Road 64 East.”

Fulk said having LECOM students on campus allows the school to continue its gardening efforts with students on a biweekly basis without affecting classroom time.

“A lot of the ideas we have, we just need more manpower,” Fulk said. “By having LECOM, we have (that).
“Not only are we educating these children how to care for the earth, but we’re also encouraging healthy eating habits and encouraging them to make positive choices for the future,” she said.

Through the end of the school year, LECOM students continue helping with projects relating to the Edible Schoolyard Program. Fulk said she expects the group to help build three garden plots on campus next month, and also hopes LECOM volunteers can assist with preparing the land lab for planting next year.

Contact Pam Eubanks at [email protected].