The Manson Northwest Webster Community School District schools are obviously closed in mid-July, but there is an outdoor learning area in use that will continue to have an impact when classes resume in the fall.

It consists of raised planting beds built by students in the district’s ag construction class. High school students Brody Poppen, Reece Olson, and Jeremy Bailey then helped fill the beds with soil.

Fifth grade math teacher Amy Brown along with Jodi Jacobsen and Heather Wittrock, planned the effort. Elementary students Brody Bush, Brooklynn Dornath, Kathleen Hildreth, Bella Nelson, Camdyn Swanson. and Maddie Wittrock planted the seeds and otherwise got the garden set up before the end of the last school year.

Students and families will take turns weeding, watering and generally taking care of the gardens throughout the rest of the summer.

The vegetables that the garden will eventually yield will be eaten by the students, faculty and staff at the schools. Any extra produce will be put in the elementary school food pantry, which is available to all families.

The goal of the effort is to give students, and the adults as well, the experience of planting, growing, picking and preparing food from a garden. Of course, the best part will be eating all of that good stuff from the garden.

Even though we live in an agricultural state where growing food is the mainstay of the economy everyone needs a a little of a reminder of just what it takes to produce it.

And we would not be surprised if working in the garden has some intangible benefits for the young gardeners. Those benefits may include an enhanced work ethic that can be applied to every endeavor, and an increased appetite for the vegetables they helped to grow. And working at those planting beds just might instill a lifelong love of gardening in some children.

We see lots of benefits to this garden program. We thank those in the Manson Northwest Webster Community School District and the Manson and Barnum communities who made it possible.