School garden blooms in VS

By Kristine Williams | Posted: Tuesday, May 7, 2013 / Tha Calaveras Enterprise

A movement is growing at Valley Springs Elementary School.  Parents and their kids got together last month to share in a campus-wide work and donor appreciation day. The all-ages volunteers worked under  the sun to clean up their campus, put plants in the ground and share in a  “local as it gets” lunch, with food provided straight out of the  school’s garden.

“We’re just bringing people together to cook and eat and enjoy the  pleasures of day-to-day existence,” said Toyon Middle School teacher  Kevin Hesser.

Hesser is largely responsible for aesthetically rejuvenating the  district’s lone middle school and has been working with other Calaveras  Unified campuses to help get gardens growing around the county. The  movement has been largely successful and classrooms across the district  have been incorporating the outside world into their curricula.

Parents and kids were abuzz at the outdoor kitchen that will eventually be  constructed next to the garden. The kitchen will act as an outdoor  teaching space, available not just to teachers and students, but to the  community and community agencies like the Resource Connection and Head  Start programs.

For Hesser, sharing such resources is essential in assuring the garden’s longevity.

“It’s all about how we can support each other,” he said. “It’s about making  this a long-term success; it’s about sustainability.”

For more information about the Valley Springs Elementary School garden, or to  learn more about the budding Mother Lode School Garden Network, email kevhesser@gmail.com.