WEST MILFORD — Over the past year, Maple Road School staff, students and parents have collaborated on the development of a school garden. What started through a generous donation from the West Milford Education Foundation as a "Feeding Reading" grant, blossomed into a huge success under the direction of kindergarten teacher, Ann Darling, and second grade teacher, Danielle Pearce. Both teachers have worked with their students and parent volunteers to create multiple garden beds in the Maple Road School courtyard. With generous supplemental support from the Maple Road School PTO and Wal-Mart, the students and teachers grew a variety of plants and vegetables this year, many of which were grown from seed.
The fruits of their labor have paid off, as the garden has grown into a wonderful school and community resource. There was enough produce for every student in grades 1 through 3 to share! Additionally, Darling and Pearce were able to fulfill their original grant commitment, which included a community action promise. Maple Road’s “little garden of love” was able to feed the residents of St. Peter's Orphanage in Denville each Sunday for more than a month. Delicious meals included homemade lasagna, manicotti, stuffed shells and more.
St. Peter’s Orphanage, which is a residential treatment facility for abused, abandoned or neglected adolescent boys, hopes to continue their collaboration with Maple Road School. Kelly McNamara, executive director of St. Peter’s, has expressed her appreciation for the donations. She hopes that the charitable relationship with the school will continue. Ms. McNamara states,
“It is this kind of giving that grows a healthy respect for all kinds of communities beyond our own backyards,” said McNamara.
Darling and Pearce hope to continue to nurture the idea of an extended community and grow the Maple Road School garden’s impact within and beyond the school’s “backyard.”