An asphalt-covered courtyard that gets only a few hours of sun seems an unlikely place to set up a garden.
Don't tell that to the student caretakers in the Special Education R.I.S.E. (Reaching Independence through Structured Education) program at William James Middle School in Fort Worth.
"So many times people really underestimate what my students are capable of," Special Education R.I.S.E teacher April Barnett said. "We're teaching them you can grow your own food, and you can grow it anywhere. We don't have any access to dirt here. We've got nothing but asphalt, and yet look at what we're doing!"
Barnett started the school's learning garden two years ago. Students use raised beds and containers to grow vegetables in a neighborhood considered a food desert.
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"There's a real lack of access to healthy fresh food," Barnett said. "So in our own small way, we're combatting food deserts and hunger and poverty in an area that faces all those challenges really strongly."
'Yeah, the most loved school garden in Fort Worth, for sure," Texas Health School Garden Educator Mary Jo Greene said.
Texas Health Resources helps support learning gardens at 40 schools across North Texas. William James Middle School recently received a $5,000 grant from Texas Health and the R4 Foundation to expand their gardening efforts.
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"We still have students and even adults now in our world that don't realize potatoes grow underground," Greene said. "By just working in the garden, growing the garden, growing vegetables; they are so much more likely to choose a fruit or vegetable portion the rest of the day and the rest of that wee than if they didn't."
In addition to learning about good nutrition, the student caretakers are learning skills they can use later in life.
"My kids need hands-on experiences," Barnett said. "When you give them that, they really flourish and grow and just bloom. Just like the plants out here."
