Volunteers braved blustery conditions outside Chase Lake Community School Saturday morning, with one immediate goal in mind: Building a raised bed vegetable garden that will benefit the school’s students and their families.

The noise of power tools filled the air as parents and other adult volunteers built the wooden beds. Groups of children and adults used rakes, shovels and wheelbarrows to move mulch and prepare the beds for planting.

Pre-cut lengths of juniper — chosen because it resists rot but isn’t chemically treated — were provided by Dunn Lumber at a discount, and the boards were specifically cut longer and narrower “so the kids could reach in,” said Beth Black, a retired Chase Lake teacher and current school volunteer who helped organize the project.

Many other organizations have been instrumental in funding the community garden project, said Black, with grants received from Whole Foods, the Snohomish County Master Gardeners’ Foundation, Edmonds in Bloom, Edmonds Kiwanis and Floretum Garden Club.

The students themselves will decide what to plant, with each grade level being responsible for one or two of the raised beds, Black said. In addition to vegetables, some flowers and herbs will be grown, and there will even be a salsa garden, she noted.

Chase Lake Principal Sean Silver said the community garden will serve several key functions at the Edmonds school, where 58 percent of students are eligible for free and reduced school lunches — an indicator of families living in poverty.

“We felt it was important to give kids access to really rich, nutrient-dense healthy foods,” said Silver, citing an increase in diabetes among the school’s younger students. What’s grown in the garden can also be incorporated into Chase Lake’s Bottomless Backpack Program, which provides food over the weekend to students in need, he added.

Students have been involved in all aspects of the garden design, from measuring the space to determine where the beds would be placed to documenting the effort through writing and photography, Silver said. The 6th grade class will be using that documentation as part of a Legacy Project to demonstrate “how they would be remembered at Chase Lake, what’s the legacy that they’re leaving behind,” Silver said. That presentation will be shared during the students’ 6th grade graduation.

Planting will take place in the next few weeks, and students will be responsible for tending the beds for the rest of the school year. During the summer, the school will rely on a network of community and family volunteers who will each sign up for a week “to come out and water and make sure everything looks OK,” Silver said.

While the Edmonds School District has been focused on providing healthier meals for its students, Silver said there is additional value in having kids themselves involved in growing the food that they will eventually eat.

“There’s a level of excitement around planting a seed and seeing it grow and then harvesting it and doing something with it,” he said. “I think kids are going to be more interested in broccoli and kale and vegetables when they see where it’s coming from, from the source.”

Next fall, the school is planning to use vegetables from the garden to make a Tuscan bean soup that will be served during Chase Lake’s Curriculum Night. “We’ll have it available for everyone who attends,” Silver said.

“This project was about community,” the principal added, “bringing our families, our students, our community together and everyone working for a really positive, important cause.”

— Story and photos by Teresa Wippel