Sustainability Spotlight: Building gardens with TCA FFA students

Not long after The Career Academy (TCA) opened in 2015, they established their own Future Farmers of America (FFA) chapter. As a club, students focus on the science, business, and technology of agriculture with opportunities for hands-on activities and leadership experiences. This school year, TCA FFA members challenged themselves with designing, building and installing garden boxes as one of their many projects. Now they are building these boxes for other LPS sites. Four of these garden boxes found their way to Dawes Middle School.

“The reason I wanted to support this project was to promote hope and growth in our school,” says Ron Kellogg, CLC site supervisor at Dawes. “After everything the world went through this past year and a half with COVID-19, I thought this would be a perfect time to create a sense of community within our school and surrounding neighborhood.”

The garden boxes originally started as a smaller scaled project with boxes only being built and placed at FFA members homes. Tom Wheeldon, the TCA FFA advisor, explained how the idea grew, “we contacted Beyond School Bells to fund the project and through the LPS Sustainability Department we found three interested schools to work with.” So far, Dawes Middle, Mickle Middle, and Saratoga Elementary have received their new garden boxes. During installation, FFA students worked side-by-side with the younger students at the schools helping them to navigate the steps and tools for putting the boxes together. 

Although Mickle already had an existing after-school garden club, Dawes and Saratoga are creating their own garden clubs so students can assist in planning and maintaining the garden boxes. “Student excitement around the boxes has ranged from “eh” to “I’ve always wanted to garden!”” said Kellogg, but now that the boxes are installed and tangible he expects increased excitement and interest.

Through choosing a project like building and installing school garden boxes, the TCA FFA offers new possibilities for younger LPS students. “I think our new garden space will create opportunities to explore other ways to incorporate outdoor learning experiences,” says Kellog. “Our dream is to make this a place where you have the choice to learn, relax, explore, and build community!” 

Thank you TCA FFA for being green champions and leaders to the younger students in the district!