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School garden setting precedent for other projects

Seeds of Change organizers want to see school gardening concept spread.

Wade Brandenburg, 3, stands alongside a community garden outside Ruskin K-8 School in Dayton. Brandenburg lives across the street from the school at 407 Ambrose Court and often helps students and neighborhood residents who are cultivating the garden.

Contributed photo Wade Brandenburg, 3, stands alongside a community garden outside Ruskin K-8 School in Dayton. Brandenburg lives across the street from the school at 407 Ambrose Court and often helps students and neighborhood residents who are cultivating the garden.

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By Mark Fisher, Staff Writer 12:25 AM Friday, July 31, 2009

DAYTON — Treva Jenkins recalls the late spring day when she and some other volunteers first tried to tackle the patch of barren, moonscape-like earth that was designated to become the Ruskin School community garden.

“We had an 8½-horsepower tiller out here, but it just bounced off this rocky ground,” Jenkins said.

A little patience, some different equipment, and a whole lot of help later, a perfectly respectable garden has sprung up from the arid ground, and later this summer, the collaborative efforts of dozens of Ruskin students, local teenagers, neighbors and community organizers will bear fruit. Or, more precisely, vegetables.

Jenkins — a landscape designer who owns her own company, Breaking Ground — also serves as project manager for Seeds of Change, an advocacy group that helped organize the Ruskin community garden as a prototype they’d like to replicate in at least four other Dayton neighborhood schools. Edison School in Dayton is scheduled to join Ruskin with a community garden next year, Jenkins said, and a course of study that ties the garden in with state academic standards is being developed with the help of Boonshoft Museum of Discovery officials. Peter Benkendorf, who oversees Seeds of Change efforts in the Dayton area, said he is working to spread the community-garden idea to suburban schools.

The Ruskin prototype is a 40-feet-by-40-feet garden that contains tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, squash and other vegetables. Ruskin students involved with Street Peace, an after-school program run by the East End Community Services and led by Ruskin teacher Julie McGlaun, donated $1,000 in seed money to get the project off — or into — the ground.

“We did a lot of the preparation — spreading compost and prepping the ground,” said 14-year-old Michael Rainey, a member of Street Peace who along with fellow group members and fellow students at the K-8 school helps keep the garden cultivated and watered. The harvest will be divvied up among the neighborhood residents and among East Dayton churches and ministries that offers meals to local families and residents.

Several Dayton-area businesses and agencies donated tilling equipment, fencing, seeds and hoses, among other services, Jenkins said.

“We didn’t plant until Memorial Day, so the garden is a little behind,” Jenkins said. “I’m not sure what kind of harvest we’re going to get, but we’re delighted at the progress so far, especially for a startup program like this.”

Contact this reporter at

(937) 225-2258 or

mfisher@DaytonDailyNews.com.

Seeds of Change

What: A group of volunteers who hope to use school-based gardens to help promote community building within neighborhoods and across community lines.

More information: www.involvementadvocacy.org; Peter Benkendorf, peter@involvementadvocacy.org;  Treva Jenkins, trevalj@aol.com

Source: Peter Benkendorf

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Every school needs a garden. All the retired folks and parents could teach the kids about real food. Something positive to do in the summer and what a part of their education this would be. Sweat equity is a wonderful thing, too. A chicken coop is not a bad idea, either, but would certainly take more time and care.

judy
11:34 AM, 7/31/2009

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I think this is a great idea! I love hearing good news! I also believe if schools can have gardens it allows students the importants of being eco friendly and good eating habbits and so much more... Hopefully the kids can eat from the garden and not eat such processed lunches.

green
10:11 AM, 7/31/2009

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Finally!! A positive story - we need MORE of these!!!

Anne
9:45 AM, 7/31/2009

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This is an excellent program, and should be replicated for all schools, all classes, and all students. It is reminiscent of the "Victory Gardens" when people had more responsibility for growing their own food. Also, gardening can generate interest in math and science in practical hands-on ways. Keep up the good work!

Kathy
8:03 AM, 7/31/2009

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This is a very good thing for the community young people. I think we do need to start more of these.

Sarah
7:46 AM, 7/31/2009

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