When it comes to meteoric growth, “Jack and the Beanstalk” has nothing on the Patton Project Gardens, even though both share inspiration consistent with a fairy tale.
The project took root in 2010 through the wishful musings of Charles F. Patton Middle School teachers Betsy Ballard and Kim Hisler. The pair, who work in the Family and Consumer Science (FCS) Department, combined a what-if mentality with a can-do spirit that spawned a greenhouse and 16 raised beds.
Since then, both the scope of the student-centered initiative and its output of crops have flourished. It has produced thousands of pounds of produce – from beets to broccoli and beyond – most of which goes to area food cupboards. And it has increased the total number of raised beds to 30.
Capitalizing on grants and donations, the project has added solar panels that not only power the greenhouse but include a dashboard inside the school so that students can monitor the energy; an outdoor classroom with a pergola, where grapevines are being trained; three hydroponic tanks; and two 30-foot-long high tunnels for extending the harvest.
With virtually no cost to the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District, the program has also positively impacted hundreds of students and needy families. In the process, its accomplishments have garnered several awards.
Its latest honor comes from the National School Boards Association’s flagship magazine, American School Board Journal, whose Magna Awards recognize outstanding school district programs throughout the country. An independent panel of school board members, administrators, and other educators selected the 2015 winners from nearly 250 submissions. The Patton Project was one of five first-place winners in the under-5,000 enrollment category.
On March 21, the project will be spotlighted at the Best Practices for School Leaders Luncheon, which occurs during the annual conference of the National School Boards Association. In addition, a description of the program will appear in a special section of the April 2015 issue of American School Board Journal. Representing the district at the luncheon in Nashville, Tenn. will be Ballard, Patton Principal Tim Hoffman, and school board members Kathy Do and Carolyn Daniels.
Ballard and Hisler both said the news that they had achieved national recognition was thrilling.
“We applied not knowing what to expect but thought we would give it a shot,” said Hisler. “That seems to be our motto: Try, and the worst that could happen is we don't get it.”
Ballard said they could remember winning the Environmental Community Service Award in 2011 for donating more than 50 pounds of vegetables to the Chester County Food Bank. At the time, that seemed to qualify as a remarkable achievement.
“Thanks to our summer Adopt-A-Bed program helping us to grow 12 months out of the year, to date we have donated over 6,000 pounds to the food bank, as well as using additional fresh items in our FCS kitchens, donating to our cafeteria, and providing food to local homeless and domestic violence shelters,” said Ballard.
In 2014, the program was selected to be the Pennsylvania nominee for the U.S. Department of Education’s Green Ribbon Schools award.
Students can participate in multiple ways, its creators said. In addition to taking the hands-on FCS elective in middle school, they also have opportunities to contribute through Honor Society or other service groups, or to volunteer with their families during Adopt-a-Bed, which involves tending a bed for a week each summer.
Victor Dupuis, who heads the Unionville-Chadds Ford school board, said when he saw the criteria for the Magna Awards, he immediately realized that the Patton Project Gardens was a good fit and recommended that Ballard and Hisler pursue it.
“I knew this was an opportunity to share our success on a national level,” he said. “I can only hope that other districts around the country will hear of this program and seek to replicate it in their own communities. Imagine the long-term impact this idea could have if it was repeated in 100, or 1,000 districts around the country."
Dupuis explained that under Ballard and Hisler’s direction, the students learn “about the power of teamwork, about advocacy for the less fortunate, and about the science and technology of natural and organic food production for the next century.”
Unionville-Chadds Ford Superintendent John C. Sanville concurred. “The Patton Project Garden is a success by every measure,” he said.
Phoebe Kitson-Davis, program manager of the Chester County Food Bank, has said that one raised bed can produce 10 pounds of food a week during the 10-week growing season, an amount the Patton gardeners routinely exceed. The food is desperately needed, she said. Despite the district’s affluence, three percent of the population lives in poverty, and a mile and a half away in Kennett Square, the percentage rises to nearly 40, she said.
Ballard and Hisler, who have no interest in slowing the program’s growth spurt, said recent grants will mechanize the sides of the tunnels; enable them to purchase two large wire wagons to get the harvest from the tunnels to the school, a distance of about a half-mile; fund a walkway making the tunnels wheelchair accessible; and subsidize a welding project so that high-school students can create decorative arches for the squash, peas, and beans.
In the spring, compost bins will be constructed in both the front gardens and at the tunnels as an Eagle Scout project, they said, adding that the project never would have materialized without support from the school board, the administration, and the community.
In addition, the greenhouse will soon be sprouting hydroponic lettuce, and grapes will begin climbing up the pergola/outdoor classroom to create a shaded area as well as provide a healthy snack. Still on the drawing board: rain barrels and a community garden.
“I never dreamed that this project would have grown into what it is now, but hard work and perseverance have paid off,” said Hisler.
The seeds of their labors are also spreading.
“We just presented at the Pennsylvania Association of Middle Level Educators’ (PAMLE) conference and have been asked to provide support to programs at a Pennsylvania college and several middle schools,” said Ballard. She said they will also be meeting with the Delaware Food Bank “to show off our program and to see how we can help inspire Delaware schools.”
Hisler added that West Chester is starting a community garden in the borough and contacted them for assistance.
The project “exemplifies how schools, community partners, and local businesses can work together to achieve more than they would otherwise on their own,” Dupuis said. “The UCFSD School Board, and, indeed our entire community, is exceedingly proud of this program and all the young people and adults that have made it a success.”
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