Kierra Chretien, 14, left, helps Anderson Middle School teacher Mercede Boutte pull a worm from a dirt clod Friday while digging a new garden.

Anderson Middle School students broke, shoveled and tilled ground on its first school garden project Friday as part of a communitywide health and wellness initiative.

The project is one of several executed through the West End Health and Wellness Project, funded by a $1 million grant from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana Foundation.

The grant is shared among the interests of Delcambre Direct Seafood, the Hopkins Street Revitalization Association, Twin Parish Port Commission and the Iberia Industrial Development Foundation. 

Principal James Russell III said students will participate in the vegetable garden’s upkeep through science classes and the 4-H club during and after school. 

Students will not only eat what they produce, but also will sell vegetables to teachers and the community. 

“The overall purpose,” Russell said, “is to acclimate to healthy living and establish a sense of self-sufficiency.”

He said teachers Mercede Boutte and Mary Himel will be taking the lead at the school in maintaining the garden and using it as a teaching tool, but community members also will be involved. On Friday, local residents Joseph Lockwood and Elias Defils were on hand with a tiller to help students get started. 

As Boutte and several students used shovels to break up the ground ahead of the tiller, Boutte jumped at the opportunities every step of the way to use the time to teach. Boutte said she teaches seventh- and eighth-graders earth and life sciences. 

During the hour the students spent outside, Boutte went through several lessons from soil pH to insect metamorphosis.

The teacher welcomed the opportunity to talk about the role of underground organisms when a worm came up squirming on a student’s shovel. 

Students were equally eager to get involved, reaching for the sky when Boutte called for volunteers.

Treion Williams, 12, a seventh-grader, said she’s looking for what the garden can do for the community as a whole. She said she was aware of the state’s high obesity rate and said the garden could encourage young people to stay active and eat well.

Williams said she stays active by being active in school and taking walks in her neighborhood. Williams also said she helps her grandmother in her garden. 

“I like digging in the ground and seeing the insects,” she said.