If you stroll through our school gardens on any given Monday afternoon, you are likely to find Marcia Jones volunteering alongside our lead environmental educator, Eliza Hudson. As a retired educator, Marcia looks forward to her weekly gardening class with our Primary students, and with her 31 years of experience as a kindergarten teacher in Guilford County, we look forward to all she has to offer the children and the school. In a recent interview, Marcia shared with us how much she loves teaching young children the value of tending the earth, especially her four grandchildren including Foster, who is enrolled in our Primary program.

In addition to helping in our gardens on a weekly basis, Marcia supports several other community gardening projects in and around the Greensboro area. She uses her green thumb to tend the gardens at the Wentworth Museum in Rockingham County, the Guilford College Community Garden and Jones Elementary School. “Gardening helps me relax,” Marcia shared, "and its so nice to be able to see the product of all your effort. I think that’s especially true for young children." Many years ago, she started a gardening program with her kindergarten students at Sedgefield Elementary School. “The children loved it. We grew a wide variety of vegetables from seed, including squash, radishes, potatoes, peas, and pumpkins. The children especially liked the pumpkins because they would grow all summer and could be harvested in the fall,” she shared.

With her family’s roots in this area of North Carolina, Marcia is deeply connected to the land, and her knowledge of farming is much greater than what her humble demeanor might initially suggest. She grew up working on her family's farm in Rockingham County just north of Greensboro and she has many fond memories of driving the tractor out in the fields. “My sister and I were working on the family farm up until two years ago. Over the years, we’ve grown tobacco, corn, wheat, soybeans and apples.” Even with those years of experience in her back pocket, Marcia continues to express her modesty about having a green thumb and loves learning new gardening techniques from those around her. “Lately, I’ve been learning more about which herbs to plant around my vegetable garden to deter deer and other wild animals,” she told us.

Needless to say, Marcia's time and talent, both as an avid gardener and an experienced educator, have been a tremendous gift for our school this year.  We are grateful for all that she has done to enrich our environmental education program and to support our students and faculty with her skills and expertise.  When asked about the best part about working with Marcia this year, Eliza Hudson shared these words of appreciation:
"Working with Marcia has been one of the highlights of the year for me and the Primary children in the Encore program at Greensboro Montessori School. It is rare to meet life-long educators who still have energy to volunteer with youth these days, yet Marcia is truly one such educator. A teacher to her core, I gain significant insight about children, gardening, and teaching from her every time we work together. Thank you Marcia!"

Greensboro Montessori School middle school students are excited to be giving back by donating produce harvested from our gardens to BackPack Beginnings. Last Friday marked our first official donation. Students within the Farm Career from the School's microeconomy program harvested two full crates of persimmons, peppers and bags of mixed greens, slated to go to students in need from Jones Elementary.

Several weeks prior, students sent a letter to BackPack Beginnings, extending their support and stating their eagerness to work with them. Then, our eighth grade Farm Manager called Tessa Kirkpatrick, Fresh Food Coordinator at BackPack Beginnings, to arrange a pick up for Friday.

Our relationship with BackPack Beginnings offers a wonderful example of how Greensboro Montessori School's unique middle school programs prepare students to be proactive, mature communicators who are capable of adult interaction. It also illustrates how our students want our school community to experience health and well-being while also helping the Greater Greensboro community to be “full” and nourished. We plan to continue to donate weekly to the BackPack Beginnings Fresh Food Initiative and hope that this is the start of a beautiful partnership.

More about BackPack Beginnings and the Fresh Food Initiative

BackPack Beginnings is a 100% volunteer 501(c)(3) organization focused on delivering child-centric services to feed, comfort and clothe children in need. By ensuring food and basic necessities are given directly to children in need, BackPack Beginnings makes a positive and lasting impact on their health and well-being. The organization was founded six years ago by Parker White, a local mom who wanted to provide hungry children with food over the weekends. BackPack Beginnings has since expanded beyond food back packs and now includes comfort back packs, clothing pantries and food pantries.

BackPack Beginnings' food back packs and pantries are enhanced by the organization's Fresh Food Initiative. Fresh fruits and vegetables improve children’s nutrition, help prevent chronic health issues and curb childhood obesity. More and more research also points to diets rich in fresh foods improving children's ability to learn and their overall school performance.

Led by volunteer Tessa Kirkpatrick (one of our very own Greensboro Montessori School parents), the Fresh Food Initiative focuses solely on making fresh fruits and vegetables available to children in need. Tessa coordinates with multiple agencies, churches, schools and community gardens each week to gather and redistribute fresh food throughout the county. Since July 1, 2016, the Fresh Food Initiative has distributed over 10,000 pounds of produce.


Letter to BackPack Beginnings