6th Grade Cooking

The Willard Grows cooking program started in 1999 when Susanne Jensen was hired as head cooking teacher. Marla started teaching cooking at John Muir Elementary, where she taught for four years before joining the team at Willard Middle School, where she has now been for four years. 


Sixth graders come into the kitchen with their core classes every other week, while the seventh and eighth grades come in with their elective class once a month. In the kitchen, they are split into three groups, with each group preparing food for their table. The recipes follow the Harvest of the Month, highlighting seasonal and fresh ingredients. For example, in September we cooked bruschetta with fresh tomatoes from the garden. In October we highlighted fall fruit, making a fall fruit parfait with homemade granola, and pancakes with applesauce. Check out our blog for recipes and updates on our cooking adventures! 

6th Grade Gardening

The Willard garden has changed a lot since 1995: from two terraced planter beds to enough garden beds to produce a plethora of vegetables and fruit capable of feeding 500 students! In addition to our main garden space, while the Willard pool is out of commission, it has been filled with soil and compost and producing food. Each school year we harvest 400 pounds of romas, 130 pounds of tomatillos, and countless cucumbers, tomatoes, strawberries, figs, apples, squash and more! 


Every other week when sixth graders are not in the kitchen, they are in the garden. The garden teachers go to the classroom and teach a twenty minute lesson on a gardening topic, such as the importance of compost (ask any student about the time Mr. Matt threw money in the trash!), nutrition, and food systems. After the in-class lesson, the class splits into three groups and heads out to the garden. The students are responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the garden, and with their classes do everything and anything that needs to be done; from harvesting and planting, to sifting compost and turning garden beds. At the end of every class the students share a snack from the garden. 

Pizza, Afterschool, and More

Ask any student their favorite thing about the garden, and they will probably say pizza! We fire up our earthen pizza oven anytime we can. We cook pizza with classes, sell it by the slice afterschool, at our big fundraising events, and for school functions. We have found that pizza is a great vehicle for putting greens and vegetables into children. Interested in getting a pie? Check out our Facebook page for the latest updates on when we will be selling pizza!

Another program we have in the garden is our afterschool program. Meeting once a week, students have the opportunity to help out and hang out in the garden and kitchen. Some fun activities from past afterschool classes include customized refridgerator pickles, made with freshly harvested cucumbers, radishes and jalapenos; quirky baskets and hats woven from dried reeds and fronds; and Halloween squash soup with sour cream spiderwebs!