The idea was a good one. Three years ago, Marion City Schools partnered with Marion Public Health and the Marion YMCA to build raised garden beds at each of the city’s elementary schools. Neighbors could adopt a bed and grow their own produce, particularly in “food desert” areas of Marion, or so the thinking went. Gardeners would sign a contract with the Marion City Schools’ wellness office, promising to take care of the beds and return them in the condition they found them at the end of the growing season.
That was the concept, but reality proved to be a different thing. A number of residents did make a stab at gardening, but for a variety of reasons—lack of water at the sites, dry weather, neglect—many of the beds became overrun with weeds and the schools’ principals wondered what, if any, control they had over the wooden boxes growing more weeds than vegetables on their campuses.
Enter The Ohio State University at Marion and the newly-formed Rotaract Club on the Marion campus. Rotaract is a Rotary service club for individuals 18 to 30 years of age. A group of Ohio State Marion students interested in community service formed the club this year, under the sponsorship of the Marion Rotary Club.
As one of its first projects, the Rotaract Club is offering assistance in cleaning up the raised beds at the city schools. Beyond that, the plan would be for the schools’ students to become gardeners in concert with Rotaract and other volunteers, giving the schools and students more ownership of the process and turning the raised beds into learning opportunities. The Rotaract Club is working with Marion City Schools’ wellness coordinator, Mariann Wright, who said a partnership with Ohio State Marion and the Rotaract Club “was meant to be.”
Club members recently gathered and spread leaf mulch on the 27 beds at McKinley, Garfield, Taft, Hayes, and George Washington elementary schools.
“It was a rewarding experience and very tactile,” said club secretary/treasurer, Amanda deJonge, a junior communications major at Ohio State Marion. “I felt like we were making a positive difference, doing something that needed to be done in the community—and it set the tone for the kinds of things we plan to do in the future.”
Ben Weber, a freshman business major, had similar thoughts. “It was fun. I thought it was worth it, making an impact in the community.”
The club is working with Ohio State extension agent Tim Barnes and former Epworth Pre-School and Daycare Director Robin Rick to develop next steps for the garden beds. Marion City Schools’ Wellness Coordinator Wright said her office has obtained one grant and hopes to obtain another to enhance the gardening program. Now that the beds have been “put to bed” for the winter, Wright plans to convene a meeting with her staff and the growing list of volunteers including the Rotaract Club, Marion Harding’s Interact Club, and Ohio State Extension to coordinate next steps for the gardens.
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