Palm Desert classroom wins $500 for school garden

This month’s One Class At A Time winner is a little different. Instead of surprising a winning classroom, our September winner is an outdoor project!

We all know vegetables are good for you, but maybe even more than you think. KESQ News Channel 3 and Walter Clark Legal Group team up every month to award a local class $500 for educational and inspirational projects. Our September award goes to Ms. Jeanne Pollard and Ms. Paula Cieslikowski at Abraham Lincoln Elementary School – for the school’s garden beds!

The Garden Club meets after school to garden, weed, tend the soil. Classes also garden during the day, too. Then, with all the vegetables they grow, “We have a ‘salad day’ where we serve over 100 salads to after school staff and students,” Ms. Pollard said.

Now, with the $500, “We are turning that bed and two others into raised gardens as well. We’ll beusing that buy to buy blocks,” Ms. Cieslikowski said.

So more kids will get to garden, which the teachers say teaches an important lesson. What kids learn from veggies is just as important as the nutrients their bodies get from them.

“They learn nutrition, keeping the planet healthy, insects, life cycles,” Ms. Cieslikowski said. To apply to be the next winner of the October ‘One Class At A Time’ award, go to KESQ.com, find the lifestyles tab.