OLD ORCHARD BEACH — Loranger Middle School students, as part of a program focused on healthy lifestyle choices, are literally reaping the benefits of learning to garden this summer.
The students are part of the Healthy Kids Program, which began in the spring with fourth and fifth grade students from Loranger Middle School participating after school three days a week. The group has continued in the summer, through this week, from 8 a.m. to noon three days a week, said Regional School Unit 23 School Health Coordinator Jackie Tselikis. The program, which promotes healthy eating, physical activity and social skills, was targeted to fourth and fifth grade students because children at this age are at a high risk for obesity, said Tselikis. Grant money is funding the program, and anyone in the targeted age group was able to participate at no cost.
One project the students took on this summer was caring for a garden in front of Loranger Middle School, which was planted in the spring by sixth grade students.
The youth have weeded and watered the garden, and picked and sampled the products of their efforts. They’ve also been able to bring some of their harvest home. After an especially good crop of cucumbers, students were able to donate some to a local retirement community, said Lisa Lurvey, Loranger Middle School Family and Consumer Science teacher and the program’s faculty advisor.
As well, students have participated in cooking projects, making chocolate zucchini bread and pickles, said Tselikis and Lurvey. In addition to cucumbers and zucchini, vegetables in the garden include lettuce, tomatoes, radishes, carrots, peas and Swiss chard.
Lurvey said peas that students harvested and shucked have been frozen and will be used in the fall during the school year. She said she hopes to have students continue to grow vegetables that can be harvested through late fall, like spinach and mescaline mix, into the school year.
The tomatoes are not ready to be harvested yet, and Tselikis said students will use the tomatoes to learn to make tomato sauce in the fall.
Tselikis said she, with the help of her grandson, will maintain the garden in the interim between the end of the summer program and the beginning of the fall school year.
Eleven-year-old Maia Miranda said at first she wasn’t sure if she’d like gardening, but she found she enjoyed it. Now she’s helping her mother garden at home and plans to continue to garden next year.
“It’s very fun,” she said.
On Thursday, Miranda held a mint leaf that she had picked and said she watched it grow from a tiny leaf. She said the vegetables she’s had from the garden are better than the ones from the grocery store.
“The peas that we had, they were delicious. I ate them on the way home,” she said. She’s hoping to be able to try the Swiss chard, which she’s never had before, she said.
Like Miranda, 11-year-old Amber Day said she thought the fresh vegetables were better than ones from the store. She also said she enjoyed the homemade pickles, and they were fun to make.
Day said gardening was harder than she thought, and she had to learn how to identify weeds from vegetable plants.
“I like that after we pull the weeds we get to eat the vegetables. That’s our prize,” said Day.
Other activities the Healthy Kids Program hosted included bowling, walking trips to play miniature golf, visits to the library and a tour of Veterans Memorial Park. Participants also played the Dance Dance Revolution dancing video game and took part in social skill and team building exercises, said Tselikis.
— Staff Writer Liz Gotthelf can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 325 or egotthelf@journaltribune.com.
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