By Emily Lohr
Principal, Early Childhood Director, St. Joseph School, Beatrice
“Those on the path are the ones who have heard.” Luke 8:12
The Parable of the Sower from Luke’s Gospel is one of my favorite passages of Scripture. I find myself returning to it often, especially this year as I have returned to the classroom to teach fifth-grade math and science at St. Joseph School in Beatrice. This year, its message has taken on new meaning as I think about our school’s mission and our daily responsibility to cultivate the soil of our students’ hearts.
That lesson has become especially tangible through something growing just outside our school: a garden.
Last fall, I began conversations with stakeholders, community members, and Kim Todd, a UNL professor and host of Backyard Farmer, the television program presented by Nebraska Public Media. We discussed the possibility of starting a school garden. By April, that conversation had grown into something much more. With the generosity of private donors, grant funding to help launch the project, and a little help from Mother Nature, our vision for a school garden became a reality.
From the beginning, the garden had three purposes: to educate and inspire our students, to serve those in need by donating fresh produce to the Willow Center, our local pregnancy resource organization, and to build community. We have already seen all three goals come to life.
Our students are, in a very real sense, living out the Parable of the Sower. As they work in the garden, they are learning to prepare soil, plant seeds, care for living things, and patiently wait for growth. At the same time, we pray that their hearts are being prepared to receive God’s Word—to hear it, take root in it, and allow it to bear fruit in their lives.
This past month, I had the opportunity to take our fifth-grade students to the garden several times each week. Their childlike wonder was one of the most inspiring parts of the experience.
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Courtesy photos
As one student laughed and explored, he exclaimed, “I feel like a preschooler again!”
Students observed bumblebees and monarch caterpillars, discovered unfamiliar plants, learned about established crops, and asked question after question about what they encountered. Their excitement was a wonderful reminder that some of the most meaningful learning happens when students can see, touch, observe, and experience the world around them.
The garden has also given our students an opportunity to connect learning with service. We talked about how the vegetables they helped grow could become fresh food for people in our community. They were excited not only to harvest the produce, but also to prepare it to be donated to the Willow Center. So far, our students have helped donate more than 60 pounds of fresh produce to the pregnancy resource center.
In that simple act of planting, harvesting and giving, students are learning an important lesson: what we are given is not meant only for ourselves. We are called to use our gifts to serve others.
The garden has become a place of community, too. When we began building the raised beds, people stopped by to lend a hand, offer encouragement, and share in the vision. What began as a simple idea has already become a place of learning, service, wonder, faith, and connection.
It has also reminded me of something important about Catholic education. We are not simply forming students who know more. We are helping form young people who recognize God’s presence in creation, appreciate the gifts they have been given, and understand their responsibility to care for others. The garden has given us another way to put those lessons into practice.
And this is only the beginning.
I am excited to see where this garden will take St. Joseph School, how it will continue to teach and inspire our students, and how it can bring our school and church communities together in service to those in need.
A garden may begin with a single seed, but with the work of many hands, it can become something much greater. As our students watch seeds take root and plants bear fruit, we are reminded that God is doing a similar work in their lives—and in ours.
We may not always see what is happening beneath the surface. But with faith, patience, care, and God’s grace, seeds planted today can bear fruit for years to come.
