Bountiful Garden Serves the Community at Mt. Kisco Elementary School

A child’s thrill and delight at a newly sprouted seed can radiate out to an entire community.

When youngsters at the Mount Kisco Elementary School Community Garden immerse themselves in planting, growing, and harvesting fruits and vegetables, their enthusiasm ripples out, impacting everyone from local food pantries, gardening clubs, coffee shops, family help groups and commercial nurseries.

“I love seeing how important this is to our kids,” said parent volunteer and Garden Co-chair Jennifer Wege.

Wege, also known as “Mrs. Garden Teacher,” recalled how students planted seeds in milk jugs last winter and their surprise to see small green plants in the spring that would grow into lettuce, kale, herbs and Swiss chard.

“When they looked inside the jugs, they couldn’t believe what they planted,” Wege said. “We had the first- and second-graders create drawings and write about the jugs.”

The jug project got a boost from local retailers, including Michael’s Garden Gate Nursery, which donated the seeds. The recycled milk jugs came from Mimi’s Coffee House and Starbucks on South Moger Avenue.

The garden had been an abandoned tennis court 12 years ago before former Mount Kisco Elementary School principal Sue Ostrofsky had the idea to transform it into a garden. In the last few years, the garden slowly deteriorated. Needed funding had disappeared during the pandemic.

Wege, who lives in Bedford Hills with her husband Greg and their twins who are in the second grade, started to revitalize the garden two years ago. Of the 41 raised wooden beds, 24 were rebuilt by Wege’s husband and the family of Juan Barbecho last spring. The two families had completed another 10 the previous year while seven other beds were previously rebuilt.

“We were able to get it started in the spring of 2021 and had all grades outside,” Wege said. “We just had brought back all of our children from remote learning. It was great to see the teachers come out, take off their masks and help teach the children to plant and maintain the garden.”

When vegetables were being planted, Wege was approached by current Principal Inas Morsi-Hogans.

“We talked about food insecurity and I told her we can grow food for the community,” Wege said. “From that point a schedule was created to bring all 25 classes down to learn about gardening.”

Once a week in the warm weather, all 500 students spend 40 minutes in the garden with their teachers. Bilingual science lessons include learning how to maintain a garden, grow and harvest food. Last spring, more than 400 pounds of fruits and vegetables were gathered by students and donated to local food pantries.

Students experienced the full cycle from ground to table by taking home foods they had never eaten before and donating bags of food to the nearby Mount Kisco Interfaith Food Pantry.

A pollinator pop-up tent donated by the Westchester Land Trust also taught students about the life cycles of butterflies and bumblebees, both essential to pollinate plants. That added to the lesson about the life cycle of fruits and vegetables.

Wege said the students wrote a bilingual skit about bumblebees and acted it out with hand puppets.

“For these kids it took the fear out of bumblebees and they would stare at sunflowers that attracted bees,” Wege said. “As we teach them about the connection to nature, it’s beautiful to watch.”

The garden has attracted support from many families and community groups, including the Foundation for Bedford Central Schools and the Suzanne Grant Foundation, which helped build a reading garden and outdoor classroom that was completed this fall.

As part of its civic beautification program, Katonah’s Hopp Ground Garden Club donated $2,500 to create a musical component in the garden. Wege, a club member, said the school’s music teacher was inspired by the Princess Diana Memorial Playground at Kensington Gardens in London.

The goal is to finish the musical section of the garden by spring. Recycled PVC piping will create an outdoor xylophone and various rain barrels will be drums. Sounds will come from students walking along a pathway made out of recycled wood from the garden.

During the summer Wege said volunteers work with Neighbors Link and use its Summer Links program at Mount Kisco Elementary School to help keep the garden going.

“Watching the children planting seeds, asking questions, telling me about something they ate and wanting to grow a garden at home, those are the moments that make my heart melt,” Wege said.