WATCH NOW: Garden club at Gary high school cultivates love of growing, nutrition education – The Times of Northwest Indiana

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GARY — As the blue tarp slid off the bright new greenhouse, a crowd of current and former West Side Leadership Academy students erupted into cheers. 
Standing on a patch of lawn tucked next to West Side’s football stadium, Steve Heinold gestured to the wooden beds and plastic tubs overflowing with collards, green beans, cherry tomatoes and wildflowers.
“We are hoping that this is something that can only grow from here,” Heinold, associate director for Indiana GEAR UP, told the 30-some attendees on Thursday.
The West Side seniors and recent graduates mingled as they roasted hot dogs and admired the garden’s progress. GEAR UP, also known as Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs, provides six- or seven-year grants to high schools and middle schools that are deemed high poverty. The program has been working with students in West Side’s 2022 and 2023 graduating classes since middle school, offering after-school programming, tutoring and field trips. 
Anita Johnson and Steve Heinold, from Indiana GEAR UP, unveil the new greenhouse Friday at the West Side Leadership Academy.
GEAR UP’s goal is to prepare students for postsecondary education through college tours and different hands-on learning projects related to the STEM — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — field.
In 2018, West Side’s GEAR UP team got the idea to start a garden.
When Lynda Bodie-Fernandez worked at Thea Bowman Leadership Academy, she noticed how much junk food the students ate. This motivated her and a few other staff members to plant a small garden of lettuce.
As the plot grew, Bodie-Fernandez began taking classes through Purdue Extension to learn more about gardening. She received her Master Gardener certification, and the beds of lettuce expanded to a full-fledged urban farm, complete with goats and chickens.
Though she retired from Thea Bowman in 2020, Bodie-Fernandez continues to garden at a childcare center in Hammond. When she learned West Side was looking to start a garden, she was quick to get involved. 
With Bodie-Fernandez at the helm, the West Side garden club came together in January.
GEAR UP Regional Director Anita Johnson, right, gets emotional as project coordinator Lynda Bodie-Fernandez talks about the garden program at the West Side Leadership Academy.
Students began by pouring over seed catalogs, selecting vegetables with intriguing names like blonde cucumber and purple basil. Seedlings were started in small cups placed under a grow light before being transferred to a borrowed greenhouse.
In the early spring, about 15 students in the garden club built wooden beds and got to work planting.
“They would never usually have that exposure (to farming and gardening),” Bodie-Fernandez said. “They love it once they get involved.”
The students also participated in what Bodie-Fernandez called “nutrition classes disguised as cooking classes” twice a week. The garden club introduced students to new foods, taught them about healthy eating and exposed them to the agricultural job field. 
Brandi Johnson, a West Side senior, said the project made her want to start her own garden one day. After graduation she hopes to study nursing and plans on using the skills she learned in her career. 
“Nurturing plants can carry over into caring for people,” Johnson said. 
Once the fall harvest is complete, Bodie-Fernandez said, the 10 garden beds will be filled with collard greens as those can be harvested as late as December. She plans on donating the collards to West Side families right before the holidays.
Student Brandi Johnson explains the gardening program at the West Side Leadership Academy.
Over the winter, the greenhouse will be filled with flowers before it is used to start small seedlings in early spring. Bodie-Fernandez hopes to double the size of the garden over the next year. The greenhouse and the garden will be incorporated into West Side’s science curriculum and after-school programming. 
Irina Cabral, a 2022 graduate of West Side, said participating in GEAR UP and the garden club helped her become more social.
Though the federal GEAR UP grant will end after 2023, the school can apply for it again.
Senior Dashaun Deadwiler waters a planter with collard greens in the garden at the West Side Leadership Academy.
“This is one of the reasons that I enjoyed going to high school, knowing that on Tuesdays and Thursdays, GEAR-UP would always be waiting at the end,” said 2022 graduate Jonathan Roberts. 
Fellow 2022 graduate Clarence Grier agreed: “It was something to look forward to.”
Student Brandi Johnson explains the gardening program at the West Side Leadership Academy.
Anita Johnson and Steve Heinold, from Indiana GEAR UP, unveil the new greenhouse Friday at the West Side Leadership Academy.
Senior Anthony Parker waters wild plants in the garden at the West Side Leadership Academy.
Jill Aichinger from Indiana GEAR Up adds some fall decorations to the new greenhouse at the West Side Leadership Academy.
GEAR UP Regional Director Anita Johnson, right, gets emotional as project coordinator Lynda Bodie-Fernandez talks about the garden program at the West Side Leadership Academy.
Senior Dashaun Deadwiler waters a planter with collard greens in the garden at the West Side Leadership Academy.

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GEAR UP Regional Director Anita Johnson, right, gets emotional as project coordinator Lynda Bodie-Fernandez talks about the garden program at the West Side Leadership Academy.
Anita Johnson and Steve Heinold, from Indiana GEAR UP, unveil the new greenhouse Friday at the West Side Leadership Academy.
Senior Dashaun Deadwiler waters a planter with collard greens in the garden at the West Side Leadership Academy.
Student Brandi Johnson explains the gardening program at the West Side Leadership Academy.
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