EUTAW, Ala. (WBRC) – Students in west Alabama are learning the value of healthy food and how to grow it themselves. That’s the focus of a program that sprouted in one county and has since spread to several others.

Students in the Greene County High School Garden Club started an on-campus garden last fall and now they’re now reaping the benefits of what they planted, in more ways than one. They planted turnip greens, collards, and cabbage in September.

The garden program started in Spring of 2022 and is now in its second year.

Students will watch these vegetables go from being planted to the plate.

David Miller, an extension agent from the Tuskegee University Cooperative Extension, who serves several west Alabama counties, says students will also go to a processing plant and see how vegetables are cleaned and processed to be sold in in stores.

It also shows students how to grow their own food and appreciate the benefits healthy eating habits bring.

“I think it’s a very fun activity that the school is offering us,” said Anya Jones with the Greene County High School Garden Club. “It really helps us connect with how the produce in the grocery store is grown,.”

“It really has opened my eyes on what I’m eating and where it comes from and the nutrition that come in it,” added Aaliyah Bonner, who is also in the Garden Club.

While growing, the garden students are also exposed to the many careers available to them when it comes to the field of agriculture.

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