Experiencing gardening and nurturing plants to create food is a unique learning process that middle school students at Rapoport Academy Public School have experienced with small raised beds in a few elective classes.

Thanks to a new partnership with World Hunger Relief, Inc. (WHRI), the Quinn Middle School garden just doubled in size. WHRI Farm Operations Apprentice Cat Hines, worked with 7th and 8th graders to quickly till the new garden area with a BCS Walk-Behind Tractors while teaching them about regenerative farming practices.

"One of our focuses is teaching the community about gardening and how you can even just do this in your backyard or in this case at your school," said Hines. "We focus on what good nutrition is and how regenerative farming is even beyond organic farming. We're teaching about how what's good for the soil is good for the land. If it's good for land then it's good for the plants and animals and ultimately good for us as a community"

Students in multiple classes helped clear the area of Bermuda grass and rocks to create the garden from the previous green space in front of the middle school. Eighth-grade math classes measured the garden to generate the area in square feet and then calculated how many much compost was needed per square inch.

Seventh-grade students in a Health and Wellness elective class helped dig out the grass clumps and measure the beds for plowing. And a 7th and 8th-grade Technology class learned about the walk-behind tractor from Hines and watched it in action.

Sixth-grade students in a Cooking and Gardening class have started hundreds of seedlings that will be planted in the garden once the soil is fertilized.

Rapoport Academy Academic Mentor Jonathan Bruce was instrumental in connecting with WHRI for the garden expansion project. As a former WHRI employee himself, he believes in the power of getting kids to learn about where their food comes from and experience that first-hand.

"Having students be outside and realize that what they are learning connects to their community, environment and their own health is so important. I think you can teach anything out of a garden and this expansion will give us more space for learning."