St. Francis Xavier students visit the Salt Lake County Jail horticultural gardens

Intermountain Catholic

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Courtesy of St. Francis Xavier School

KEARNS — As we prepare to put healthy, hearty holiday meals on our tables this season, many of us will take the time to reflect on our blessings: bountiful autumn harvests, delicious fresh produce, as well as the opportunities we have to give back to the community and to learn from each other.

As fourth-graders at St. Francis Xavier School recently discovered, some of these blessings come from unlikely places. Akiva Toren’s class went on a field trip in early October that was described by students as an adventure to an "exciting place" full of "learning," "fun," and "pumpkins!"

This "exciting place" happens to be part of the Salt Lake County Jail. On Oct. 1, Toren and his 20 fourth-grade students explored the jail’s horticultural gardens, learning about many plants and eventually lugging home one of autumn’s most notable crops: a pumpkin for every student.

Students wandered the fields and saw the hard work of the inmates who tend the gardens while learning about horticulture.

As part of the "Excellence in Gardening" program, inmate workers plant seeds, water the plants, pull weeds, kill pests, harvest crops, and eventually sell the produce at the Downtown Farmers Market on Saturdays. Although the inmates were not in the garden during the students’ tour, their work speaks for itself. The garden boasts 80 different crops – vegetables, herbs, flowers – that are grown year-round thanks to the garden’s two large greenhouses.

Horticulturists Melissa Warwood and Jessica Gardner led students on a tour of the greenhouses as well as the two-acre garden. A notable stop on the tour was the garden’s 10 beehives, which house about 1 million bees. Students learned from Warwood and Gardner all about bees and the important role they play in a healthy garden and about other urban pollinators. Many students were happy to learn that despite their reputation for stinging, bees are actually "good bugs."

Callie Ulin enjoyed learning "about how bees bring pollen to their hive, and how they make honey."

Avian Cabey was surprised to learn about pollination, saying, "I learned about the other pollinators there are besides bees. There are flies, bats, beetles, butterflies and hummingbirds!"

The students received information from the jail’s horticultural partner, the Utah State University Extension service, which taught them even more about how bees, plants and animals are all necessary to grow the food that we eat every day.

Fourth-grader Lauren Lindula was surprised to learn that "the prisoners made the garden" through the horticultural program. Indeed, the program showers blessings upon not only the customers enjoying fresh produce, but on the inmates who build new skills, and on the students of St. Francis Xavier, who were able to be educated about horticulture and – the best part – "Picking out my own pumpkin!"