Gwinnett Daily Post

Photo: Andrew McMurtrie Tomatoes, herbs and sunflowers are among the items grown in the Garden of Discovery Montessori Schools sustainable garden program. The food that is grown provides the food they use for snacks and their lunches.

GRAYSON -- On the menu: black bean chili, cornbread muffins and fresh fruit. Sound like a great meal? This is what the students of the Garden of Discovery Montessori School are served for lunch during the week thanks to its new sustainable garden and hot meal programs.

From spring until the end of fall, the students plant, weed and give life to gardens around the building in order to grow food that provides lunch and snacks at the school while teaching the children responsibility and the importance of sustainability.

"Our main goal is to utilize tangible science in the classroom," said Frances Byrd, the garden program director and volunteer coordinator. "We're teaching them self-sufficiency and self-reliance, and they also have the satisfaction of growing the things that they use in the classroom to prepare meals."

During the year, the school's gardens hold bell peppers, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, watermelon, an apple orchard, blueberries, blackberries, carrots, a variety of herbs and much more.

Before spring planting, Byrd sits down with each class to find out what they would like in the gardens.

"To the best of my ability, we plant things that the children want in the garden," she said. "It's more important for them to appreciate the space than a factory setting that we're worried about how much we're producing. The goal is for the children to learn."

Once the ripe fruits and vegetables are harvested, they are given over to Michelle Cleary, the school's meal program director, who makes hot lunches and simple snacks for the children every day.

"I try to (make meals) based on -- as much as possible -- fresh fruits and vegetables," she said. "The kids chop them up and love them. The toddlers don't even care what it is, they just eat it."

Cleary is in charge of feeding different classrooms throughout the day: the toddlers (18 months to 3 years old), primary level (3 to 6 years old) and elementary level (6 to 12 years old). The challenge isn't thinking of meals or getting the children to eat, but something else -- portion sizes.

"There is portion sizing depending on age and I have to serve it to five different classrooms, which is hectic," she said. "But I cook the way I would want to feed my own children and family and I think parents appreciate that."

And the parents who have enrolled their youngsters in the program love it.

"As a parent, it's refreshing to know that my child will have an opportunity to participate in growing foods that she will be eating during her snack time," Robert O'Connor said. "My wife and I know that when Mackenzie has her snack in the morning, she will be consuming something healthy."

Although the gardening season is winding down, Byrd and Cleary are using up every last piece of food they can until next year.

"It's nice to see that we can cross things off the grocery list because we've produced it," Byrd said.

For the next few months, Byrd will continuously tend to the soil to order to produce more food in the up-coming growing season.

"We hope that most of our produce consumption will be something that we grow here. It will be an on-growing progressive thing -- but that's how gardening is," she said. "You learn from the space you have, make adaptations every year a little bit more ... it's a matter of time to see what direction it takes."

In December, Byrd and a volunteer plan to paint large blue plastic drums, which will be used next year to catch rain water. The students will decorate them to put them around the gardens.

"They need to experience the process of taking care of the garden also," Byrd said. "Just telling them that we're collecting rain water so we don't have to use water from the faucet doesn't really register entirely. If they get to decorate the barrel, that's more tangible to them."

The school will plant fresh crops in the spring. For more information about the school, visit www.gardenofdiscoverymontessori.com.