ZION, Ill. – Up until now, the Zion Benton Township High School Community Garden has been one of Lake County’s best kept secrets as the only one of its kind. Conceived by a National Honor Society senior project, and born during the pandemic, the community garden promotes diversity and student engagement. 

“The kids come out there and I hear them are having conversations about things that are going on in school or otherwise; it's a nice place to talk.” 

During the school year in 2021, a senior at ZBTHS had begun her National Honor Society senior project: A community garden. When Nancy Lahare, Special Education Teacher at the high school, realized that the student had already begun this project, she jumped in to help.  

“At the time we had been asking if we could do a garden,” says Mrs. Lahare.  

In May of that year, the first garden was planted at the high school. Initially, the students that were involved were mostly seniors, and they soon graduated. Mrs. Lahare made sure to keep the garden going that summer because she knew that this was the beginning of a great thing – for students and the community. “I wanted to keep it going. And when the school year started, I knew I'd get kids that would join.” 

That fall, Mrs. Lahare, who grew up in Zion and attended the high school herself, put together a signup sheet, and students signed up.  

The group harvested tomatoes, kale, lettuce, and carrots and took them to the Abiding Love Food Pantry, a ministry through the Church Assembly of God in Zion. The pantry provides people in need with food and prayer every Wednesday from 10 a.m.. to 1:00 p.m.

After fall harvest and clean up, Mrs. Lahare and the students started planning. "I had been in Louisiana during the summer and I saw a garden had cinder blocks.” Mrs. Lahare saw the cinder block concept as the perfect solution for a high school community garden. "Wood, you'd need replace. I thought it would be great to get as many kids out here to paint the cinder blocks and we could do the Zion colors of the high school.” 

Mrs. Lahare and the students worked to set up the garden, and paint the cinder blocks, turning this into an art project as well. Students were coming out to the garden from different classes, like art and biology.  Some of the students with disabilities were coming to work in the garden as well.  

Due to the weather conditions, planting was delayed until close to the end of May of last year. Mrs. Lahare was impressed by the dedication of students, who were out in the garden even during finals and on weekends to spend hours shoveling dirt into raised beds and planting for the season.  

That summer, despite transportation obstacles, students were finding ways to make it over to the high school to work in the garden.  Some rode their bikes several miles to the school every other day. One student would get a ride from her mom or her grandpa, who would stay and help in the garden, too.  

By the time July and August rolled in, the garden was getting consistent produce. Mrs. Lahare and ZBTHS got approval by the city to do sales at a produce stand. “It was donation only,” says Mrs. Lahare, “whatever you want to give, you can, and you would be able to stop by and pick stuff up. We thought that families might be able to take advantage of that, but for some reason the word did not get out.” 

Then Mrs. Lahare and the students noticed that when they were working in the garden, people would see them working and stop by to check it out. That’s when they had the idea to do the donation sales right from the garden site itself, instead of the produce stand.  

“We'd be out there on Tuesdays and Thursdays watering. People could stop by between three and four, and they could come over and see what we're doing and pick out produce. This turned out to be the best thing.”  

Whatever was left over went to the Abiding Love Food Pantry, which reported getting the reddest tomatoes from Mrs. Lahare and her student’s garden than from anywhere else.  

As the garden evolved, the work schedule expanded to where kids were coming in the mornings and weekends, too.  The garden club did fundraisers to help raise money for supplies for the garden. The maintenance crew from the school offered to help fix the garden fence.  

Last fall, Mrs. Lahare designated an area for another student project. Senior Izzy Salise completed an ecology leadership program through Elawa Farm, which is a center in Lake County for experiential learning to broaden access to education, nutritious food, and our local food system. Izzy will be designing and implementing a pollinator area near the garden with the help of a community educator. 

“The kids come out there and I hear them are having conversations about things that are going on in school or otherwise; it's a nice place to talk.” Even if they don’t talk, by just being busy and being outside, Mrs. Lahare reports, the students said that gardening is very relaxing. “The interactions with the students have been very important– they've been good to each other.”  

In addition to social and emotional benefits, Mrs. Lahare has witnessed experiential development with students working on the garden project. “It's trial and error. You're trying to see what works, what doesn't work; it's science. ” 

Mrs. Lahare's number one priority on her garden wish list is that the word can get out more about the garden as it continues to evolve. “Unless you were at the school or your family stopped by, or through other word of mouth, it’s not getting to families out in the community.”  

As far as the tangible items on Mrs. Lahare’s wish list, this month the University of Illinois Extension Master Gardener program provided seeds from the new Extension seed library. The EMG program will also provide technical assistance to the garden team throughout the growing season. 

Mrs. Lahare sees the potential for strengthening the community through the garden concept, and wants to make sure as many people as possible can experience it and even start other community gardens throughout the area. 

You can follow the Zion Benton Township High School Garden on Instagram at @ZBTHSGarden. 

The Zion Benton Township High School Garden project is partly supported by the University of Illinois Extension’s 4-H, Horticulture, and Local Food Systems and Small Farms programs in Lake County. For more information on Extension and the resources available to the community visit https://extension.illinois.edu.  

The University of Illinois Extension’s Zion Health Together Project is part of the statewide program Health Equity Achieved Together. The Zion Healthy Together Project’s objective is to expand nutrition and physical activities, increase availability and access to healthy food, and foster community collaboration to maximize health outcomes for families in the City of Zion, Illinois. Subscribe to Zion Healthy Together Project email updates here. 

SOURCE: Nancy Lahare, Special Education Teacher, Zion Benton Township High School 
WRITER: Camille Winer, Communications Project Coordinator (XH), University of Illinois Extension, Zion Healthy Together Project, part of the Health Equity Achieved Together (HEAT) Illinois 

This institution is an equal opportunity provider. This material is funded by the USDA's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program - SNAP. College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences. University of Illinois | USDA | Local Extension Councils Cooperating.  

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