Emma Mahon, 9, shows the result of getting involved in building a student garden at Banyan Creek Elementary School in Delray Beach.

The Wellness Committee at Banyan Creek Elementary School is dedicated to making sure students develop healthy lifestyles. Comprising a group of mother’s led by president Sheri Hillman and co-vice president Lisa Lothian, they’re introducing ways students can create habits that are beneficial to their bodies. Lothian, a parent of a second-grader at the school, Marissa Lothian, discovered the Lowe’s Toolbox for Education for an Organic Teaching Garden while researching grants last November. In December she began the grant writing process and now some seven months later her plan has been funded to build a teaching garden and the formation of the Banyan Creek Garden Club.
“The grant application was based on the goal of sharing the joys and health benefits of gardening as well as the concepts of sustainability and green living. I was searching specifically for school gardens and began writing it in December,” Lothian said.
Lothian and her husband, an architect at JHL Design Group, designed the project with help of the Banyan Creek Elementary School Wellness Committee. The family even designed a worm composter.
“It’s a composter with worms. Put in your veggie scraps, the worms eat it, and then 'cast' the best compost ever,” Lothian said.
The garden will be free of pesticides, and will be grown as a food supply for students to experiment and used in math curriculum and science teaching exercises.

Banyan Creek Elementary School parent and Wellness Committee member Lisa Lothian poses with students and the grant award.

Lothian asks for volunteers to begin the garden work.

Lothian instructs the gardeners.

Then, more students come to help out and listen to teachers' instructions.

Step right up!

Organic Answers, a Delray Beach based company, donated the paving bricks that will outline paths in the gardens.

The plot of land for the garden.