For the last two weeks, the Montgomery City Public Library has been giving area elementary school children an opportunity to develop life skills and improve their health.

The library is holding a program called Eating From The Garden, which will run until the beginning of August. Children are being taught to plant and harvest produce, sample fruits and vegetables and get involved in nutrition and food safety activities. Heather Warren, a nutrition program associate for the MU Extension in Montgomery County, is the instructor of the class.

Classes were held on June 13 and 20 at the MCPL Community Room and the Community Garden at St. Vincent De Paul, which is a five-minute walk from the library. The next scheduled classes are July 3, July 11, July 25 and Aug. 1 from 10 a.m.-11 a.m. There will be a total of six classes in the program, which is part of the MCPL’s Summer Reading Program.

“With our programs that we do through the university, we have to at least do a series of six,” Warren said. “We found out that with a series of at least six classes, there is more likely to be positive behavior change when they’re seeing a little bit more repetition. So we’re going to get six in. Hopefully next year, we’ll start a little bit earlier in the summer and be able to get some more.”

The topics in the program include nutrition, the importance of eating fruits and vegetables, food safety, basic gardening skills, plant science and environmental awareness.

In the second class on June 20, children learned the five basic food groups – grains, protein, fruit, dairy and vegetables. They ate samples of three of those groups – grains, fruit and protein. Then, they walked to the Community Garden to check out one of their beds which has a tomato plant. There were six children in the class.

Warren said before classes began, she had a discussion with MCPL Director Gaylee Harris and they agreed on having a garden with red tomatoes and green and orange peppers.

“We wanted a colorful garden,” Warren said. “So that’s kind of how it would look. Next year, I want to try to get with Gaylee and get one of the bigger beds. Those hold water better. So next year, we’ll probably shift a little bit. This is what we had for this year and we’re going to make it work.”

Warren said Yardbirds donated the plants for the program. They were planted before classes started two weeks ago.

“I thought it was important for the kids to be able to harvest off the plant,” Warren said. “I wanted them to see it grow and be able to eat from it. So we decided to plant it before class started so the kids would be able to harvest. Had we started a little earlier, I probably would have had the kids plant. Hopefully next year, we can go that route.”

Anyone who wants to sign up for the gardening program can call MCPL at 573-564-8022.