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A snail with a yellow shell made an appearance Saturday while a group of volunteers tended to a garden at Scriber Lake High School.
“That’s amazing, I’ve never seen a yellow one,” Susan Larson said to a child who had the snail resting on her glove. “What are you gonna name him?”
“Snaily,” the child said.
Larson is a board member and volunteer at Washington Kids (WA Kids), a nonprofit focused on providing needs to unhoused and low-income children attending the Edmonds School District.
On June 13, Larson and a handful of volunteers gathered on the southeast corner of the Edmonds-based alternative high school, pulling weeds from the ground and adding more soil in raised garden beds, among other tasks.
Larson calls one side of the garden “for the soul” because it has flowers and plants. She calls the other side “for nourishment” because it grows fruits and vegetables such as strawberries, tomatoes and cucumbers.
WA Kids Executive Director Kim Gorney said Scriber Lake High has week-long mini courses where students get to experiment with different hobbies, such as baking, construction and gardening.
Last year, after the gardening mini course was over, no one took on the garden, Gorney said. WA Kids decided to oversee it and recruited students and other volunteers to help with the upkeep.
Gorney said that during the summer, students who participate in WA Kids’ after-school program use the zucchinis from the garden to make zucchini bread. They also use strawberries for a salad.
“We try to show what a healthy, balanced meal looks like,” Gorney said. “The extra goes to the food bank, so they’re learning a little bit about community service, too.”
Sophomore William Tonga is one of the students who got involved with the garden. He has also been involved with WA Kids since his freshman year. Gorney said he is getting high school credits for taking care of the garden over the summer this year.
Tonga is known as the lead gardener. He waters the garden when it is sunny, and he tries to remove weeds before he goes to class. He said he is at the garden every day except the weekends.
“I love managing the garden,” Tonga said. “It’s peaceful.”
Dayton Mcmillin and Liliara Watson, both freshmen, said they became involved with the garden after hearing about it from their science teacher.
Mcmillin said he built the gutter connected to the roof of the garden shed. He also helped remove pounds of moss from the roof. He said it was hard to clean because of how the roof is set up, but he did it anyway and finished within a week.
Watson said her favorite part of gardening is removing weeds because it is the easiest, but added it can get challenging.
“It’s physically stressful and taxing, but it’s also nice because it’s just ripping crap out of the ground,” Watson said.
Gorney said the Verdant Health Commission awarded WA Kids $1,000 this year for gardening materials, and foundry10 pays for the week-long gardening mini course. WA Kids puts in the labor and extra funds.
David Lee, Verdant’s marketing and communications manager, said the organization has been trying to support more community gardens in the area. In addition to the Scriber Lake High garden, the organization has also helped St. Pius X Catholic Church in Mountlake Terrace.
Lee said community gardens, in a way, complement Verdant’s mission of addressing food security and mental health.
“I hope it’s something that we continue to do for years,” Lee said.
Angelica Relente is a Murrow News Fellow covering housing and related issues in South Snohomish County for the My Neighborhood News Group. Contact her at [email protected].
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