By Molly Lovell
Editor
     What was once a strip of dirt next to the Pleasant Hill School playground now lays a lush, edible garden, which has proved to be a valuable learning tool for students.
     The project began this past fall with the urging of Scarborough resident Roger Doiron. Doiron is a strong supporter of individuals being self reliant in terms of their food sources. His son is a student at the school and so Doiron thought it was the perfect place to start educating Scarborough’s youth about where their food comes from.
     “I needed to start small and start somewhere. It made most sense to start in the neighborhood where I live,” he said.
     School employees Martha Whitton and Gretel Graf were immediately attracted to the idea of starting an edible garden and took the project on as their own. Doiron assisted them in finding a spot for the garden that would get enough sunlight, water and that was also a safe place for the children to work.
     That strip of dirt next to the playground ended up being an ideal location. “Everyday they can literally see the growth while they’re out at recess,” Whitton said. “The area where the garden is now was just mud before. It’s really become our own little school miracle.”
     Doiron called Whitton and Graf “champions,” within the school for their ability to see beyond just planting a couple of seeds.
     Whitton and Graf had to put much consideration into what vegetables the students were going to plant because she wanted to make sure they were going to be in school when it was time to harvest them. This past Thursday they harvested radishes. Students have also planted pumpkins, gourds, potatoes, garlic and squash among other things.
     Each of the school’s 200 students has been able to have a hand in this project at one point or another and four families have signed up to water the garden this summer.
     “We want them to see where their food comes from. To most of them when they think about garlic bread they think of a container of (garlic) salt,” Whitton said.
     Doiron said he was weary that the project would be successful. “I was worried it was going to be like pushing a ball up a hill but I discovered the ball was already at the top of the hill and just needed a little push to make it go down,” he said. “The level of interest among the students has been very, very high and there’s also been a lot of support coming from the community.”
     The town of Scarborough donated a composter for the project, so throughout the year Graf would go around at the end of lunch periods to collect foods that could be composted. The Hilton Garden Inn out of Portland awarded a grant to school to help with project.
     Whitton also credits parent support for the success of the project. “They have been incredible. When we first started the project a letter was sent home to the parents. We received 35 responses from parents immediately,” Whitton said.
     One family helped build the raised garden beds and another family who has been making their own compost for four years donated left over materials to the effort. Other donated items include seeds, seedling mats, fencing and an irrigation system for the garden.
     “This project has really taken off. We had no idea it was going to be this successful,” Whitton said.
     Throughout this project the children have not only learned about where their food comes from, but they’ve learned about good and bad insects as well. Spiders, for example, help protect the vegetables because their webs catch mites that otherwise would eat the plants.
    Students also had a lesson in weather patterns when one of the plants bloomed in December, died, and bloomed again in March.
     Whitton said she hopes this project is going to instill a sense of community in the students, as well as be something that every student who comes through the school will be able to take part in for years to come.
     Doiron said it would make sense to start similar programs at the primary and intermediate school levels. “Most kids these days are growing up in a very disconnected way from their food and where it comes from,” Doiron said.
     Doiron gave an example to illustrate his point – a child is asked to draw a picture of a chicken, and they draw a chicken nugget. “That might be an exaggeration, but I think the average young person doesn’t really have a sense of just how far food travels and the processing it goes through to go from a chicken to a chicken nugget,” he said.
     Doiron said it’s important to educate young children about healthy eating because they’re exposed to exorbitant amount of negative messages about food. “Statistics show that children are exposed to 40,000 advertising messages a year. If you’ve ever watched cartoons on a Saturday morning, they’re not advertising broccoli,” he said.
     With childhood obesity becoming an increasing problem in the United States Doiron thinks it’s important to foster a child’s interest in eating vegetables and fruits. Just as important is having those items readily available when a child is hungry.
     Doiron said his children’s are constantly “grazing” at his home garden. “I know very well where that food came from and know first hand, what if anything those plants were exposed to,” he said.
     Doiron said he would like to see the Pleasant Hill School garden expand and possibly add some fruit trees and bushes. “Things are things kids love to eat. There are wonderfully natural sweets out there we need to expose them to,” he said.