Summer is a time where most students take a break from the hustle and bustle of Lambert. Without school in session, many students and student organizations alike focus on things other than Lambert, occupying themselves with summer activities or simply enjoying their free time. But Lambert’s Change Earth club spent this past summer with a goal in mind – working hard to better their community in the form of a new school garden.
Located in the grassy path between the front entrance and the gym lot, next to the dog park, the new school garden serves to promote both environmental conservation and teach students about gardening through real-world experience.
The idea came last year as Lambert’s environmental club merged into the Change Earth club, forming a bigger organization with more resources and members. The new Change Earth club immediately began thinking about ways they could continue to advocate for environmental protection and make their community more environmentally conscious.
“One of the first things we did a couple years ago was implement a recycling program for Lambert, all of it now gets sorted because of us,” Change Earth’s Vice President and Lambert senior Armaan Bhasin said. “As for the garden we were looking for other things we could do at Lambert you know? With a school garden we were like this can be both a thing for the school and we can eventually teach people about growing food.”
With a clear plan in mind at the end of last school year, the club first met with new Principal Mrs. Thrower and got approval to build in their current location. They also received a small grant from hardware store The Home Depot to help finance the project.
With enough materials and a set location, the club built a set of six planters on the west side of the dog park. Through the summer, members helped to plant, water and manage a variety of vegetables in the garden. Currently, the garden has everything from tomatoes to lettuce and radishes planted.
As of now, the plants have just started sprouting and the only upkeep necessary is watering them, which is managed by the existing members of the club. But as the plants advance through their growing cycle and the Change Earth club gains more members with the new school year, they hope to do more with the garden. The vegetables themselves will likely go to the school cafeteria to be used in preparing lunches for Lambert students, but Change Earth believes that the garden can be used for more than just food.
Aside from its other projects, the club plans to create a committee solely for the maintenance and expansion of its garden.
“We want to start hosting events to teach people about gardening and give our members actual experience in how you can grow food for yourself,” Armaan said. “Hopefully, we can give people the skills necessary to grow their own gardens at home since that’s a very environmentally conscious thing to do.”
For now, the garden remains open as a place for Lambert students to learn about growing their own plants and vegetables as well as a way to give back to the school with the results. Change Earth has in fact merged with another environmental club, the National Green Schools Honor Society, to gain even more members as they hope to spread their mission of environmental consciousness and implement new projects that benefit Lambert.
