'School Garden of the Year' Awarded to McGinn Elementary

The NJ Farm to School network has named McGinn Elementary in Scotch Plains as the "overall winning garden" in their School Garden of the Year contest. 

The school created a garden in an unused outdoor space and held 11 harvests last year, donating food to the Plainfield Food Pantry. 

The announcement on the group's website, highlighted students' work in the garden, listing the following: 

- The kindergarten developed a garden center in their classroom where they grew and studied plants and shared their findings with second grade buddies. The pairs also jointly planted corn kernels in translucent containers, which they transplanted to the garden.
-First grade developed a picture map of the vegetables grown in the garden after researching the beds and studying map characteristics.
-Second grade wrote letters to pen pals across the district regarding the plants they had planted and gave them a tour when they visited in the spring.
-Third grade developed global cookbooks based on how different cultures use the foods we grow and provided copies to the local libraries.
-Fourth grade wrote persuasive letters about the benefits of the vegetables they grew to seventh grade peer leaders who then visited the garden to get an informative tour with poster presentations from the fourth graders.

"The students are thrilled about the win," Principal Sasha Slocum told the Star-Ledger. "The garden is still growing."

The school will be honored at an October ceremony and receive $1,500 in prize money. 

The New Jersey Farm To School Network is a nonprofit that works to improve school food, promote locally grown produce and educate through school gardens.