A master gardener also demonstrates the kinds of work needed to maintain the garden. The hands-on and practical work with plants is good. There is not a lot of opportunity in the inner city for students to have contact with plants. The largest example is the Chicago High School for Agricultural Science, which maintains the last farm in Chicago. Students learn about agricultural careers and giving back to the community, Principal Barbara Valerious said.
Students glean the fields once a year and give whatever vegetables they find to area food banks.
In the spring, the school plans to start a Plant a Row for the Hungry program. Participants will distribute vegetable seeds to senior citizens and encourage each person to raise one row of vegetables for food banks. Students will collect the vegetables in the fall and distribute them to the food banks. At the Northside Learning Center, a special-education secondary school, students practice basic skills and learn responsibility working in a greenhouse and in vegetable and flower gardens. About 120 students are in a greenhouse class, teacher Robert Tadjiki said.