Harvesting Fall Bounty for White Center Food Bank

Last week, 12 Explorer West Middle School students and two of their teachers, Steve White and Kristin Moore, joined forces with Aviva Furman from Community Harvest of Southwest Seattle work together at the St. James Community Garden in White Center. With cold weather on the horizon, bringing in some of the bounty was an important task. Students harvested kale, carrots, and rutabaga which were then donated to the White Center Food Bank. They also worked the soil to prepare it for future crops: turning in a cover crop of buckwheat, raking downed leaves, and composting sunflowers that were long past their primes. A special ingredient, coffee grounds donated by the Westwood Village Starbucks was added to the mix. Finally, students separated cloves of garlic from a previous harvest and planted them for a winter crop.