AUSTIN, Texas -- It may not look like much now, but come November, the garden at Brooke Elementary will be flourishing with spinach, lettuce, and kale.
"It's about 30 days before we start getting our seedlings coming up, and then after that 30 days before we can start taking the leaves off," said teacher Sam DeSanto.
Brooke Elementary has had the garden for a few years, but for the first time, they're taking what they grow and serving it in the cafeteria.
"We believe that the cafeteria is a classroom, so we wanted to start our Garden to Café Program to really extend that educational opportunity that the students have in the garden to the cafeteria," said Anneliese Tanner, AISD Nutrition & Food Services Director.
After several months of planning, AISD's new Garden to Café Program is finally launching this school year.
Ninety-five of the district's schools have gardens on site, and they're working to get all of them to cook up their produce in the cafeteria.
"We really needed to consider food safety, that's our number one priority when we're feeding students and so to go through that educational process took some time," Tanner said.
The goal is to connect kids to learn more about where their food comes from.
When students get involved, they become more interested in eating the greens that they grow, planting the idea that eating healthy can also be fun.
"The neat thing about it is the kids really start taking ownership of it, and so then they start eating things that they've never tried before," DeSanto said. "They start eating chard, and broccoli, and kale."
AISD school garden leaders are encouraged to download the Garden to Café approval form and submit it to the district to participate in the program.