EXETER — To beet or not to beet, that is the question.
For Wyoming Area Secondary Center teacher Dennis Hando, the answer is to beet — and to tomato, cucumber, strawberry and more. Hando, who wears two hats inside the classroom as an instructor of history and English, dons his garden hat outside the classroom as advisor of the school’s garden club. He and the students of Wyoming Area Garden Club spent their Earth Day on April 22 with shovels, pitchforks and topsoil in the school courtyard.
“It’s one of the most basic human things, growing your own food,” Hando said. “Especially today, with all that manufactured stuff you don’t know where your food comes from. I think it’s important the kids learn how to provide for themselves. It’s a skill that will always help you out.”
Students dug holes to plant blueberries, replaced sod with topsoil for tomatoes and covered raised beds with plastic weed protectors. The fruits and vegetables are used in the community after they’re harvested.
“We usually use about 25 percent in the school and the rest is usually donated,” Hando said. “Sometimes we’ll give directly to the kids who are in need at our school and our district. We also use a summer school program, which I’m also involved in, and a lot of those kids have some trouble finding fresh produce at home, so we donate to them, as well.”
Along with being used in the school cafeteria or donated to needy students, the food is also donated to Meals on Wheels. Club members aren’t left hungry, either.
“Last year we did strawberries and those were really good,” said senior Kara Dooner. “I also took home zucchinis.”
Eden Stella, also a senior, hadn’t tried the club’s previous harvests since her first year of membership. She enjoys eating fresh fruit and vegetables, but also finds joy in planting, maintaining and donating the crops too. Stella hopes future students seek that joy, too.
“I feel like we need more underclassmen to join because it’s a lot of seniors that have time in their schedule to come to the courtyard during school,” Stella said. “It definitely needs more underclassmen to help it grow.”
Hando said he’ll have 10 returning members after the Class of 2017 graduates. It’s more than the single-digit membership the club claimed when it started with a $5,000 Walmart grant three years ago, but he hopes to draft more underclassmen into the club in the future.
Seniors are the easiest to work with because they can stay after school and drive themselves home, but seniors also have a tendency to graduate, meaning they’ll put in the work necessary to plant club crops, then leave.
“A lot of these seniors never get to see these tomatoes and stuff grow,” Hando said. “I told them they can always come back and visit, and for the amount of work they’re putting in this year, they’ll get a pin.”
The seniors may not get to witness the fruits of their labor, but they did help Hando grow Wyoming Area Garden Club — a group of young gardeners Hando said will spend the coming years making the school district a greener place, with plans to integrate school waste as compost and offer their courtyard location for academic use, especially during science classes.
Hando will also need to raise money for the club when the materials purchased with the aforementioned grant are all used, but he’s got a head start researching fundraising techniques. For now, the weather is breaking, the sun is shining and the seeds need planting.
