Success in Rosebud!

Sometimes I’m not convinced that I’ve had any influence on the communities I’ve been working in. Tangible results have been few and far between, so I’ve tried to take on faith that the relationships and ideas I’m building are just as meaningful. The many obstacles I’ve dealt with haven’t always left me convinced. This Friday, however, marked my last day of teaching and acting as ‘Compost Lady’ at Rosebud School, and showed me how much of a difference I’ve actually made.

To celebrate our final lesson, I wrote a song on my guitar to review some of the lessons we’ve done this spring, and asked students to help me fill in the blanks, which they joyously did.

“We’ve been going to school for a long time so

I’m about ready for summer to let us go

But before we run out of here for break

Let’s take a minute to review what we ate

We saved leftover food to make into compost

Pieces of fruit, veggies and scraps of cold toast

It goes in a garden, for plants to grow strong

The one thing we don’t compost is meat ‘cause that’s wrong

We like to eat parts of plants and we share it

Broccoli’s a flower and a root is a carrot

We tried a new food; it was green and called kale

We ate it up raw, and cooked in a pail

So now we know how to eat healthy food at school

We know that eating this way is cool

Eat your veggies to grow up smart/strong

And food will be fun even after I’m gone!”

I watched one of my kindergarteners hold back tears as I explained that with the school year almost over, it’s time for me to move on to a new job and for them to take over composting and teaching each other about healthy eating. She took a deep breath, and reached for another piece of kale. They gobbled down all of the raw kale I brought, which has become an overwhelming favorite. Then they grudgingly moved on to the kale chips. I was chastised at full volume by a kindergartener when I said to throw any scraps in the garbage, who shrieked, “No! They go in the compost!” One student told me about how she got her own garden plot this year and that she intends to grow kale. Another actually got kale seeds in her Easter basket. Three weeks ago none of these students had ever eaten kale, and now it has become a school-wide phenomenon!

When I went out to fetch the compost bin from the greenhouse, I was shocked to see four beautiful raised garden beds laid out on our garden site. I’ve been working to get this garden built for months, and hadn’t expected it to ever happen. In the greenhouse, pepper sprouts peeked out of their pots, and everything was ready for tomato planting that afternoon. During composting at lunch, I was deluged by new helpers supervising their peers as they disposed of lunch trays. Older students were overwhelmed as first and second graders harassed them like a flock of crows when they dropped food scraps in the wrong bin. Their enthusiasm left me feeling like this project may very well continue into the next school year.

I worked in Rosebud for nearly 8 months, and in that time I struggled to tell if I was making a difference. On this final day, I realized that in less than a year the entire student body learned how to compost, the elementary kids became kale-eating fiends, and started a school garden. What a huge, unexpected success!

I’m suddenly vastly more confident of what awaits me in Lame Deer. We’re well on the way to getting a garden built, and I’ve already concocted a myriad of schemes for making healthy food accessible here. This will certainly be a challenging and frustrating experience, but I’m boosted by the knowledge that a healthy food movement can actually emerge in eastern Montana.