New shed expands learning opportunities at Woodstock school garden

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – Instead of children’s laughter coming from the Woodstock Elementary School playground Saturday, the sounds of hammering and sawing could be heard as volunteers assembled the school’s new garden shed. 

The shed is just the latest addition to the school’s garden, which has been developing over the last few years. Second-grade teacher Jesse Hunter first came to Woodstock Elementary School in 2017 and after his arrival, he became the school’s garden coordinator. 

The school already had some garden beds in place, but Hunter has been making improvements. He moved the beds to a new location, added more beds and installed a pollinator garden. 

His latest project, adding a garden shed, received approval from Principal Seth Johnson in 2019. Hunter received funding from the Parent Teacher Association and had everything in place to begin construction, but then the pandemic hit and the shed was put on hold. In fall 2021, Hunter began moving forward with the shed again and needed to raise additional funds to cover the higher price of materials. 

Finally, his efforts are paying off and on Saturday and Sunday, volunteers erected the shed. 

“It’s going to make a critical difference for our garden,” Hunter said. “It’s not just going to house tools, but educational supplies, so there’ll be educational kits for each grade level.” 

He said the shed will hold measuring tapes and hand lenses and insect identification cards, clipboards, knee pads, and more. 

Sisters in the Brotherhood, a group within the Northwest Carpenters Union that’s composed of female and female-identifying members, is volunteering to build the shed. The group works to recruit and retain more women working in carpentry trades. 

Rose Swartz is on the steering committee of Sisters in the Brotherhood, is a journeyperson carpenter for Local 146, and teaches for the apprenticeship program at the Pacific Northwest Carpenters Institute. 

She said volunteer projects like the shed built at Woodstock Elementary School serve as valuable opportunities for apprentices to learn new skill sets. 

“For people who are just beginning their apprenticeship, just getting more experience reading a tape measure and being able to look at a set of blueprints and see something on paper sort of come to life,” she explained. 

Swartz said volunteer projects can also serve as a way to make their group more visible in the community and to recruit more people to carpentry. 

She said the group is always open to volunteer opportunities and finding projects they can help build. 

“It’s like cool to see people actually applying the skills they’ve learned in a class and now they’re out here doing it. So for me, that’s part of the reward as well,” she said. 

Hunter said the shed Sisters in the Brotherhood is building will help students thrive. Already, the garden is providing Hunter and other teachers opportunities to teach kids applied math and science skills. 

During Black History Month in February, the garden featured several African Americans who have made a difference in fighting for social justice and who pushed for expanded gardening. 

A couple of examples include former First Lady Michelle Obama who pushed for children to learn more about gardening, nutrition and food equity; and Ron Finley who’s a Los Angeles-based fashion designer who helped change the law in Los Angeles to allow people to plant fruits and vegetables in the land between the sidewalk and the curb. 

The Woodstock school garden also allows students to learn about life cycles, pollination, nutrition and how to be environmental stewards. 

“I personally really believe it’s one thing to teach kids about climate change in the abstract, but to really get kids to care about the environment and become environmental stewards, you have to provide them opportunities to care for a piece of land themselves,” he said. 

That’s one thing parent Stephen Grieco has found most valuable about the garden. His son Hudson is in Hunter’s second-grade class. 

He said it’s exciting as a parent to see Hunter’s vision for the school garden coming together. Grieco sees it as a valuable asset to teach his son things like where his food comes from, how it’s grown and how growing food differently could have an impact on climate change. 

Now, when the family goes to the Woodstock Farmers Market, Grieco said his son knows the produce was grown before it came to the sale booths. 

“It really provides a way for the kids to start thinking about how can they, as they’re the future stewards of our planet, grow and change and develop a new way of thinking about food and how we grow it,” Grieco said. 

He said he’s glad the Parent Teacher Association decided to invest in the shed. He said it helps the community know the school is committed to its garden program and plans to keep it in place for a long time and could serve as a launchpad for other future garden projects. 

Food that’s grown in the Woodstock Elementary School garden is used in Portland Public Schools cafeterias. During the school year, any produce that isn’t used can be sent home with students. 

In the summer, volunteers tend the garden beds and can harvest the fruits and vegetables. 

Hunter said if the school ever gets to a point where it’s producing an excessive amount of fruits and vegetables, he’d love to have some of it donated to a local food pantry. 

Hunter previously helped build a garden at Lent K-5 School in Portland before he came to Woodstock. He said there are more than 100 school gardens in the Portland metro area and hopes this is a growing trend. 

“This is a national movement so you know, it’s not just about coming out to the garden and you know, planting and doing some, fun activities. This is a really integral part of a school community,” he said. 

Anyone interested in donating to the Woodstock Elementary School garden or in volunteering with garden work parties can email Hunter at jhunter@pps.net. 

Swartz said people interested in joining the Northwest Carpenters Institute as an apprentice can find more information at PNCI.org.