Montgomery Middle's garden grows thanks to Whole Foods, volunteer

The Montgomery Middle School garden was the location for a fun Whole Foods Market volunteer project after the school recently won a Garden Grant from the supermarket chain.

Together with elementary students visiting from Bayside Community Center’s Academic Club in Linda Vista and volunteers from The Bishop’s School in La Jolla we will share in celebrating service and collaboration in a beautiful school garden setting.

"We're excited to roll up our sleeves to help prepare the garden for cool weather crop season with our partners at the school," said Ray Kau, Store Marketing Supervisor for the chain's Hillcrest store. "This was family-friendly, three-hour project with tasks for everyone ages 7 and up!"

The work at the historic Linda Vista campus included learning about cool weather and warm weather crops while painting whimsical plant identification signs to be used in the garden boxes, preparing garden beds with compost and planting with cool weather seeds and starter plants. Some kids also sketched their favorite plant or spot in the garden which will be used to create a mosaic art piece that will be displayed at the store.

"This event was fun, uplifting, and kid-friendly," said Kau. "This was an opportunity for customers, team members, and kids to partner together in service to our community. We'll have plenty of garden related activities to engage everyone. The best part is working together to service our edible community!"

The store brought along a "magical build-your-own salad-bar for kids and grown-ups, plus all the fixings" where they could join in the fun of the fun of "eating a rainbow" in honor of the Whole Kids Foundation.

For more information on the garden, contact Emalyn Leppard at Montgomery Middle School, 858-397-6600.