Middle School Garden Feeds Into Students’ STEM and Ag Education

What was started as a small indoor educational garden by Franklin County (Virginia) Farm Bureau blossomed into a year-round outdoor program that not only supports ag education but shows Benjamin Franklin Middle School students how to grow a variety of food sources and helps address local food insecurity.

The project started as a small indoor hydroponics garden and expanded in 2025 into a larger outdoor learning space with multiple raised beds.

Working with math teacher Jennifer Hatch and a school administrator, Franklin County Farm Bureau helped create a planting timeline with a focus on plants that can create student-friendly meals and can produce throughout the school year and in the summer. Hatch leads the lessons and works with the students in the garden, while Farm Bureau provides expertise and secures volunteers and resources, like seeds, plants, fertilizer and soil, when needed.

Each stage of the garden is an opportunity for an agriculture lesson - from composting, cleaning out the raised beds, prepping the soil and applying fertilizer to planting seeds, maintaining the beds and weeding. Harvesting and food preparation are also part of the lesson plan.

On the STEM side, working in the garden exposes students to real-world applications of math, nutrition and science through planting, measuring growth, testing soil, managing compost and learning about garden management.

It's not only the garden that's growing, so are the students' teamwork skills and their understanding of responsibility, problem-solving and long-term project planning.

"It's full circle," said Monica Bowman, Franklin County Farm Bureau Women's Committee member. "Students plant the garden, nurture the plants and learn how to cook and prepare their harvest."

The students enjoy making pesto from garden-grown basil and fresh salads with leafy greens, tomatoes and sprouts.

The garden also helps address food insecurity in the community, which affects 16.2% of the county's children.

"Students were asking if they could take some produce home and it became apparent there was a need for food," Bowman shared. "So, this year we started a backpack harvest" where students bring produce from the garden home to their families.

Bowman estimates over 500 students have been directly involved, with even more learning from the garden as teachers incorporate it into their lessons.

"It just snowballed," Bowman said. "Students tell other students about it and then they want to participate too."

County Activities of Excellence

Franklin County Farm Bureau's year-round middle school garden earned the organization a County Activities of Excellence Award from the American Farm Bureau Federation. They were among 25 counties invited to display their activity at the 2026 AFBF Convention trade show in January in Anaheim, California.