Hi, I’m Ellen Kehr the Freeborn County coordinator, for the Statewide Health Improvement Program, and it’s time to get out and get active!

Springtime is in the air and many of us are planting our gardens and filling those flower pots. Here in Albert Lea, both Brookside and Spark community gardens are fully booked with 106 garden plots being planted with flowers and produce.

This year we have a new addition to our gardens. The Halverson School Community Garden is an exciting new concept in community gardens that required extensive and unique partnerships. This project involved the creation of a mixed-use Community Garden at Halverson Elementary School. It is a collaboration between the Albert Lea School District, the city of Albert Lea, Freeborn County SHIP, the University of Minnesota Extension Service, the Junior Gardeners Association, AmeriCorps volunteers and the Halverson Elementary School PTO. The school district contributed the land, the city tilled the soil and provided two picnic tables for educational purposes, the SHIP program paid for a water hook-up, the AmeriCorps volunteers and Junior Gardeners Association will plant and maintain the children’s portion of the garden, the Halverson PTO has provided support and promotion and The University of Minnesota Extension will be available all summer to provide the educational piece. The school-age summer programs at The Children’s Center, the Albert Lea Family Y and Halverson school are all booked to use the garden extensively this summer.

The purpose of this garden is to help children and families connect with the source of their food, to learn how their choices affect their own and their family’s health and to provide an educational tool for educators in the area of nutrition and fresh foods. The garden is meant to be an agricultural gathering place in a safe setting that promotes and enhances wellness and physical health.

The garden consists of 20 10-foot-by-10-foot plots with the cost per plot for the summer being $20. The first four plots are reserved for children’s use and the other 16 plots are for the families and neighbors of Halverson students. The children’s portion of the garden will be planted to ensure produce throughout the summer and into the fall. The Halverson teachers will be welcomed and encouraged to use the garden to complement educational pieces in the classroom that highlight fresh foods and nutrition.

I would like to thank every organization, public entity and person involved in making this garden a reality. It takes collaboration and a shared sense of purpose to accomplish something with this many different partners and I “along with countless others” hope that it will be the first of many school gardens in Freeborn County. We must continue to find ways to bring fresh foods and the experiences of being connected to the land back into the lives of our children. If you would like to reserve one of the Halverson garden plots, please contact the school at 379-4900.

Let’s fill this summer with fun, family, friends and healthy choices. To find out more about making the healthy choice the easy choice visit us at www.healthyfreeborncounty.org.

Ellen Kehr is the Freeborn County coordinator for the Statewide Health Improvement Program.