No, I haven't done this personally (although we had them even at my elementary school in the 1980s! I believe we were ahead of the curve. ;-) It was during the first major wave of interest in recycling, which seemed to die down later on but has revived with the new "green" movement.) We composted much of the cafeteria waste - students were encouraged to scrape vegetables into one bin, and everything else into another, and then the vegetable bin was emptied into the compost bin outside, and yard waste was also added. (Yes, not a perfect system when relying on children, but it worked decently.) My thinking is that most schools already have dumpsters, which tend to have a wide array of things added to them. The trash smells from these dumpters are almost invariably worse than any smell from a compost pile which does not have meat products added. If this is the case at your school, that's already one point you can make. Until recently, I worked at a private boarding school. I am aware that the "green movement" and "sustainability" is a huge thing in education - followed with almost religious fervor at many places, even without doing adequate research to support the enthusiasm. So, I actually do not expect that you will have many problems, unless your school system is very behind the times.

Thanks guys! The teachers are already excited from seeing the extra plants from my own apartment garden I brought to start off with. Right now, that just consist of a couple of husky cherry's, two other southern variety tomato plants, some ozark strawberries, a few honey dew and crimson sweet water melon, and some left over struggling cabbage, brussel sprouts, broccoli and buttercrest lettuce starts left over from my home depot binges. I also have about 9 cheyenne pepper plants which I have to section off for the elementary aged students. But with all of your suggestions I think I can focus it more based on the areas I have. The first shovel goes in on monday so I hope I can have pics up soon after to help describe better. There is a roughtly 10x10 old sandbox no longer used. It's against the western fence (with a few trees) with clear eastern sky, with the school building to the south. It doesn't seem as FULL SUN as some of the other areas. I also have a slight concern for the leaves & insects hiding in the trees on our neighbors side of the fence. Originally thought it would be the perfect strawberry patch, but now I'm thinking it might be my best bet at squeezing some greens out of the remainding season. The plan is to dick out the sand (its down at least 3 feet) layer some gravel (necessary?), then compost and top soil. Only thing I've every used as mulch was red landscaping mulch. Would like to try something else. I have an archway climbing structure thats currently in full sun (but movable) that I think would be great for any vining/trailing plants. I think it would be beautiful covered in butterfly attracting flowers (girls), but think it would make a nice "cave" of berries (boys & girls). There's an old plastic car that sits on the ground, large enough for maybe three kids to sit it. I want to fill it very lushly with flowers that do well in bouquets. There's a separate mini-playground for our infants and toddlers. They're play space is mainly for motor and sensory development. It's also mostly shaded. Can anything grow there? I know most herbs are full sun, or else I'd primarily plant bunches of strong scented and multi-textured herbs for smelling and touching. Are there any other plants that will grow with muted sun that are fragrant or soft/rough/hairy, etc. I also read about a "tickle" plant or something that moves when u touch it. The old playground landscape used tires to divide areas. We're digging them up and painting them to build towers for our sweet and other potatoes. I'm thinking of a container garden for cherry tomatoes. The only ones I have are red so I have to start looking for southern varieties in different colors and tastes for the children to explore. I'm also looking for a multitude of different containers. The icing buckets, old trash cans, bath tubs, sinks, fish tanks, wheel barrels. Unfortunately, the rest may end up in raised beds. Which seems like a slight bit of a hassle. The land next to the potatoes is mostly old wood mulch and dirt and I have to have it dug down and leveled anyway so it would be great to have it dug deep enough for top soil, compost and in ground planting. However, a portable classroom building will be placed there by august. So I'd only get the next couple of months worth of growing out of it. Seems like a lot of trouble for one growing season. What do you guys think? If anything, the suggestions of corn, edible flowers, colorful beans, and the amazing sounding sun flower teepee would be likely be the additional plants. I'm really excited it. If i can get this much going, the fall season will be greatly expanded. An option thats on the fence, but pretty much headed to the chopping block because of my own inexperience is a "potpourri" garden. My sister thought it would be nice if some of the plants the children had would be fragrant enough to be dried and given to their parents as bags of potpourri? Anybody know enough about that to point me in the right direction? Thanks for ALL the suggestions guys. This is a HUGE project, especially for me to have just started gardening in december. I know i need to utilize the extension office as well but I'd rather know what I could and would like to do first. Good news though, from how this turns out, a local church may want me to help them start a large vegetable garden to contribute to a neighborhood vegetable stand and food bank. Yay! More overwhelming gardening plans! lol Lefran

Annie, I actually don't have a problem with Sebastian choosing to socialize rather then eat, well not with Sebastian anyway. I feel that part of why he is going to school is for the social part. I hate the way the schools devalue eating and socialization. The other problem is the cafeteria, actually it is a cafe-gym-atorium and it is loud and awful. All the kids prefer it when they have lunch in their classroom, at least according to my informal poll. lol, I have often had much with them in the cafeteria and once in the classroom. They were much better at eating while socializing in the classroom. The problem is lunch is when the teachers get a break. I would like teachers to eat with them and have their break during recess. My felling about food is make sure to feel good about everything you serve so it does not matter what they make a meal of. I told a friend of mine when we had 1 year olds, serve them good food and don't pay attention to what is on the floor or still on the tray. So long as you served it it counts. I don't even make my kids take a bite. I tried that once and the gaging etc was not worth it. Plus he had built up that he would not like it. I have told them if it is on their plate and they don't want it, don't talk about it. If they say something is disgusting I will require a bite, ignore it and I am fine. I just hate to have my food insulted ;-) Also they will need these manners for other peoples homes. My kids can have problems in the house of some peers as they are used to a certain level of food. They will not eat frozen pizza, super market rotisserie chicken ... We have friends who eat frozen pizza, when we go over to their house for pizza we bring dough, sauce etc. -Robin

I attended high school in the 1950s and our school did not have a lunch room. The students brought a bag lunch from home and ate in the bleachers in the gym. My typical lunch was a sandwich, a fruit, and a pastry. We high school kids carried our lunch in paper bags. If I was careful with my bag, it could be folded after use and slipped inot my back pocket to be used again. I usually got 3 days of use out or one bag. My one room country grade school lunch experience was different. I carried a lunch box with themos. The thermos liner never lasted an entire school year before it was broken. Most of the time it broke when dropped of when I fell during my journey between home and school. One time it was broken when I used my steel lunch box as a weapon to defend my self from the school bully. Times were difficult for my family during my grade school days. My sandwiches were made with cuts of cooked, home cured pork on slices of home-made bread, I remember once when we ran low on luncheon material, I had a bean sandwich. This was navy beans between two slices of bread, one slice was buttered with home made butter. During those times, once I had a raw turnip to munch on. In the fall, I'd grab an apple or two from a tree in our small orchard on my way to school.