White Station is not the only school that is taking an interest in gardening.

Farm-to-Fork is a fellowship of high school students working with Shelby Farms Park to plant gardens at various Shelby County schools.

“The purpose of this fellowship is to educate high school students on everything to do with farming, like where their food is coming from and how easy gardening is,” group member and White Station student Alice Gleadhill (12) said.

The group’s base is the Shelby Farms garden, which they regularly take care of; however, their focus is to bring gardens to the schools of Memphis.

So far, the group has worked at Kingsbury High, Grahamwood Elementary and Berclair Elementary. They have traveled to many other schools to see whether or not they have a garden of their own.

So, what kinds of food do they actually grow?

“We do plant flowers, but we also plant vegetables like squash, corn, beans and tomatoes,” Gleadhill said. “Around Halloween, we grow pumpkins and use them for Spooky Nights at Shelby Farms.”

Farm-to-Fork uses hoop houses in many of their gardens, including the garden at Shelby Farms. Hoop houses allow certain foods and plants to be grown year round, similar to a green house.

“All we do is organic, so we don’t use any pesticides. Everything that is organically grown has a different taste, which is why I think it is so important that we organically farm,” Farm-to-Fork fellow Sri Velrajan (11) said.

“The kids at elementary schools love it and get really excited. Some teachers will take the kids out to the garden during recess and the kids will weed and water the plants,” Gleadhill said.

Shelby County Schools is very supportive of the program. The Central Nutrition Center at Shelby County Schools, which also has a garden, allows the vegetables grown at the schools to be put in the school lunches.

“The kids end up eating healthy food they would not normally eat because they know that they helped grow it,” Gleadhill said.

Farm-to-Fork is a fellowship, meaning it is a paid opportunity, not volunteer. If you are interested in getting involved, visit www.shelbyfarmspark.org/greenlinegardens to find out how to apply. Keep in mind that you should have some gardening experience, as the admissions process is selective.

You can learn about gardening and things like hoop houses for yourself by visiting the Shelby Farms garden. It is located on Farm Road across from the Humane Society of Memphis.

“Having gardens around a community makes the violence and poverty levels go down because gardening is fun, it’s peaceful and it gives you food,” Velrajan said.

However, if you are planning to be out gardening during the day, “make sure [you] drink a lot of water,” Velrajan said.

In the future, Farm-to-Fork hopes to grow in size and expand to municipal county schools outside of Shelby County Schools. Their mission is for every student in Memphis to be educated about gardening.