Pick a peck of potatoes: Garden teams up students, community in Whitefish

The second annual harvest of the Lions Club Farm to School Garden was under way Thursday in Whitefish.

About 280 Whitefish Middle School seventh- and eighth-graders got their hands dirty harvesting the 50- by 300-foot garden filled with varieties of squash, zucchini, potatoes, carrots and beets.

Whitefish Lions Club member Greg Shaffer was the gardening expert of the group. Shaffer said they chose the vegetables for their hardiness and low maintenance.

The produce will go full circle, from soil to school lunch tray, throughout the year. The Whitefish school lunch program will use the vegetables in meals.

Shaffer and Whitefish Lions Club President Kim Taylor estimated about 5,000 pounds of potatoes and 800 pounds of squash were harvested last year.

“This is only our third year as a club,” Taylor said. “We wanted to create a legacy project for Whitefish. Whitefish already had a community garden, so we wanted to explore the idea of farm to school.”

The garden plot’s neighboring business, Don K Chevrolet, helped sponsor the garden by allotting 3 acres for the project. Other local businesses and organizations supported the project through donations and supplies.

Kerry Drown, Whitefish Middle School principal, said the project is a great example of community teamwork. He said it also teaches responsibility and gives students a connection to their food, school and organizations in the community.

“We try to educate them on the whole concept of service learning and the value that a 13- or 14-year-old can provide to the community,” Drown said. “They don’t see it as work.”

Whitefish Middle School Assistant Principal Josh Branstetter said the garden is one of many service projects the middle-schoolers participate in. The project is also educational, he said.

“Classrooms are wherever learning takes place. Right here, we’re an outdoor classroom,” Branstetter said.

Students walked down pathways of dirt tamped down by sneakers to their designated vegetables. Shaffer gave guidance to a few students picking zucchini.

“You have to look close. It’s kind of like an Easter egg hunt,” he said.

Across from the zucchini patch, seventh-graders Haley Hileman, 12, Taylor Kampf, 12, and eighth-grader Giles Thornton, 13, hunted through the dirt for potatoes.

After finding a few, Thornton stabbed the ground with a small pitchfork and loosened the soil to reveal a large potato. Kampf plucked one from the dirt, brushed it off and held it up. Hileman and Kampf scooped soil away and found a couple more.

“Everything tastes better when it’s freshly picked,” Kampf said.

At the front of the garden, students hosed down potatoes and tossed them into nearby burlap sacks.

Taking a break, seventh-grader Casey Valez sat down on a table next to two friends. Each of them had a freshly picked and rinsed cucumber. Valez took a bite.

“This is really fresh,” he said. “Crunchier, juicier, a bit bittersweet.”

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or at hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.