Common Threads non-profit will provide support; spring plans in the works
by Marnie Jones
KENDALL – Kendall Elementary students, teachers and families broke ground on a new garden on Saturday, Dec. 3. The garden, which is being constructed under the guidance of the Common Threads School Garden Collective, will allow students to learn about food, farming, horticulture, and the environment.
Kendall joins 10 other Whatcom County schools in engaging with Common Threads to get their garden started. “School gardens are more sustainable if there’s a garden educator or an outside human resource to keep the energy going,” according to Common Threads’ Tessa Bundy. Having an experienced person come in and rally the troops, she explained, can make the garden more sustainable.
Saturday’s ground-breaking followed guidelines laid out by a landscape designer who works with Common Threads, but the work to follow will offer opportunity for creative input from the Kendall Elementary community. A garden committee, made up of parents, teachers, and staff, will join Common Threads staff in a visioning process to determine what shape the garden should take in the spring. What to plant and whether to prioritize food crops, vibrant flowers, or a garden theme are all questions that will be answered in a collaborative process over the coming months.
Kendall Elementary principal Charles Burleigh is happy to see the garden starting, and feels that student interest will grow now that the first visible progress has been made. The project has evolved almost entirely out of parent support, Burleigh said, pointing to Kendall parent Katie Chugg as the garden’s most vocal supporter. “I would say she’s right at the center of making these things happen,” Principal Burleigh said “I really appreciate our parent organization taking the lead. [The project] is going to be a great opportunity for our students.”
Common Threads, operating as a non-profit, requires a $2,300 per year membership fee for schools which join the collective. This money goes primarily towards paying their Garden Educators, who spend time at each garden site on a regular basis to help plan and inspire. Examples of the work that might be done by a Garden Educator include organizing school gardening clubs, helping with garden-related curriculum development and lesson plans, and helping the school to embrace their garden and appropriate it into their own culture.
As for Common Threads, their staff is pleased to be working with the enthusiastic Kendall community. “There’s a lot of potential [in Kendall] to engage these kids in growing food and using the garden in the school,” Bundy said.
Kendall Elementary is the Collective’s second outlying school, joining the Lummi Nation School and nine Bellingham member schools. “We’re thrilled to have a garden out in the county. Interest in school gardens is growing, and we’ve been able to gain a sense of what works for different schools.”
According to Bundy, the Common Threads staff have become very good at guiding a school towards creating a garden that works for their distinct needs.
For more information about Kendall’s school garden, contact Katie Chugg at 599-1391 or Chuggkm78@yahoo.com, or Tessa Bundy at 961-7562 or email tessa@commonthreadsfarm.org.