FROM GARDEN TO CAFETERIA

Captain Planet Foundation and APS plant seeds for community collaboration

the table is going to be amazing.”

She and her peers helped plan the new plot (their second), till the land, spread the compost donated by local homeowners, plant seeds and tend the crops. The project was led by managers from the Atlanta-based Captain Planet Foundation’s Garden-to-Cafeteria program, members of the nonprofit, FoodCorps, and a coordinator from APS’s school food service vendor Sodexo Jackmont.

By Sue G. Collins

Budding gardeners in 50 Atlanta Public Schools are growing food to help feed the district’s 45,000 students thanks to grants, community volunteers and the support of the APS nutrition department.

Last month, students in the Maynard H. Jackson High School garden club planted carrots, spinach and pollinator flowers while harvesting radishes from the sunny 3,000-square-foot plot behind the football stadium on Glenwood Avenue.

“I can’t wait to see my friends in the lunch room eating our radishes,” said MJHS senior, Caston Noorullah, who founded the garden club last year to fulfill a graduation requirement in her International Baccalaureate Diploma program. “It’s so much work, and to see the food actually on