School composting/gardening?

The Northeast Organic Farmers' Association (NOFA) will meet in Worcester, MA 15 January 2011 for its winter conference. This is an open to the public, educational convention with workshops and all day meetings on subjects of interest to both home gardeners to large scale farmers.

One of the workshops is on promoting composting and gardening in schools. It has bothered me that all too many yards are without gardens these days. How else can kids begin to learn the basics of nutrition and science as well as a respect for natural processes if there is no home garden?

I taught at a suburban high school for several years where there was a courtyard already set up for gardening. There were raised beds, made from brick, where nothing but weeds grew. The final year I was there, a biology teacher organized students to plant the beds.

Why not have the students raise some of the foods served in the cafeteria? Yes, schools do have a problem in that they are closed during the summer when many crop plants are harvested, but, even in the north, salad greens and herbs can be grown to use in the cafeteria, which can also supply compost.