S O R T O F !

"I s lfsufficient, but I knew other benefits would start to also stack up Some of the kids now know me as “the garden lady”, a few have actually referenced the community garden 1/2 a block away from school as being my home. Throughout the summer a majority of the preschoolers would smell like basil by the end of the day, they can strip a plant of its leaves in under 30 seconds and then ask for more. All of these interactions are one of my favorite parts of the job. Most of the kids don’t really know what I do, or where I go when I leave their classrooms. Some of them think I’m the person who is there to solely clean up the Community Room after breakfast, and others just know I’m not a teacher, but also know I’m someone who is there to be their friend and keep them safe. Our gardens, and these seedlings, give me an opportunity to connect with our classrooms and share a piece of my own core preschool memories of walking through the on-site greenhouse we had with each of them. There is something about the feeling of walking into a warm room full of things that can’t say a word, but are living and breathing beings that need to be taken care of. If the conditions are right, it’ll stick with them all for forever." -

Samantha Laman, Operations Coordinator