Junior high garden comes full circle with soup lunch

Columbia Falls Junior High students gathered to eat soup made from ingredients from the school’s garden and inspired by a French folk tale, “Stone Soup.”

In the Stone Soup story, some poor travelers with no food come to a village with plenty of food, but no villager willing to share. The travelers say that they will make stone soup instead. As the villagers watch, they are convinced, one at a time, to offer something to the soup pot as the travelers say that while stone soup is the best soup in the world, it could be made better with various additions. In the end, each person in the village contributes something and the entire group enjoys a communal meal.

The event was meant to celebrate the students’ efforts in harvesting vegetables from the school’s community garden.

Students from various classes assisted in the harvest last Monday and Tuesday, and Home and Consumer Science classes helped with some of the preparation, including chopping vegetables on Tuesday. Students returned to the Home and Consumer Science classroom on Wednesday morning to help make the soup.

Helping to spearhead the meal was Mary Rochelle of FoodCorps, who has been working within the junior high this year to promote healthy food choices.

Rochelle said that another key to the stone soup event was to build engagement school-wide for a culture of healthy eating.

School Board member E.J. Hoerner dropped by for a taste of the soup and extended an invitation for Rochelle to share her efforts with the school board.

“What a wonderful experience for the students,” Hoerner said. “I hope the school board has an opportunity to hear what’s going on at the middle school with FoodCorps and classes in nutrition.”

Local farmer Gary Anderson, who the students called “Farmer Gary,” also contributed to the school’s stone soup with more locally-grown vegetables. Anderson has been working with the school for four or five years, he said, providing fresh produce.

“I find that there are students absolutely interested, and some who are absolutely not. For the ones in between, if they show mild interest, over the years that interest grows,” Anderson said.

Keeping the kids interested in agriculture and healthy eating is vital.

“It’s important that the kids understand that food comes from the ground, not the grocery store. The ground has to be manipulated and food has to be cared for,” he said.

“We made it as student-driven as possible,” Rochelle said. “It was their idea to announce it in the classrooms. They have ownership over it.”

Rochelle pointed out some “great leaders” in the group of students serving the soup at lunch time, including seventh grader Shannon McDowall. McDowall is a member of the garden club and cooking club. She will also be on a committee, when it is formed, that works with FoodCorps to set goals for the school’s approach to healthy eating, she said.

She’s been interested in cooking from a young age- six or seven years old, she said.

“My favorite part is mixing ingredients and having fun, and experimenting with what it will taste like,” McDowall said.

McDowall said the best part of Wednesday’s activities was that “it sort of brings everyone together and lets everyone know about the garden club.”

Eighth grade garden club member Crimson Drapeau said the best part was picking the veggies and having a say in what went into the soup. Garden club is great, he said, because “mostly we get to have fun, we get to get dirty and eat food.”

“The best part is getting to try all the stuff in one- the taste of it,” Drapeau said about the Garden Club’s contribution to the Stone Soup.