The Edible Classroom believes that learning at school does not end in the classroom.

Outside of the physical buildings at schools within Penn Manor School District, Columbia Borough School District and the School District of Lancaster, school gardens exist where students plan, plant, care for and harvest vegetables.

Per its website, the Edible Classroom "cultivates academic achievement, healthy lifestyles and environmental stewardship through garden-based, experiential learning."

"It's like an on-site field trip where students come out for their lesson," said co-founder and executive director Grace Julian. "It's an opportunity for them to experience in a hands-on way all three parts of our mission statement."

The Edible Classroom, a nonprofit organization, was founded in 2017 by Julian and Beth Horst, both residents within the Penn Manor School District. Shortly after, the school garden program began at the aforementioned trio of school districts.

"We found that, as you can imagine, our administrators and our teachers are focused more on the classroom learning inside of the school building," Julian said. "We found our ability to support and reinforce what the students are learning inside the classroom . . . to be very valuable."

The organization does not have a physical, brick-and-mortar location but instead operates out of its school gardens. It has a Columbia mailing address, but Julian would love to see the organization expand beyond its current three districts.

At the school gardens, students are involved in every step of the cultivation process. Students plant the vegetables, watch them grow, harvest them and then can eat them, something that Julian highlighted as being incredibly important.

"We find that if the student is involved in the process, they're more inclined to try the vegetable," Julian said. "Even just the visual of where that cucumber came from, it being from their school garden, is a familiar place and a positive touch."

The gardens reinforce the state's Science, Technology & Engineering, and Environmental Literacy & Sustainability (STEELS) standards, which were adopted in 2023 to guide the study of the natural and humanmade world.

Within Penn Manor School District, gardens are currently located at Central Manor Elementary School and Hambright Elementary School. At Columbia, gardens are located at Columbia High/Middle School, Columbia Early Learning Center and Park Elementary School.

In May, The Edible Classroom had the opportunity to present at Pennsylvania's third Farm to Child Nutritional Summit in Philadelphia at Bartram's Garden and Sankofa Community Farm. The organization was invited by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), of which it was a grant recipient last year.

"They invited two grant recipients to report on what good things we were able to accomplish thanks to the USDA grant funding," Julian said. "Our portion of the presentation was sharing how four schools in our partnerships benefited greatly from additional local produce given to the students, as well as lessons and informal opportunities for the students to engage in their garden."

The Edible Classroom is always searching for both volunteers and community partners, Julian said. Those interested should visit http://www.theedibleclassroom.org.

"The beauty of our spring is setting us up for the beauty of the fall," Julian said. "Every lesson in the spring is planting some type of seed, and then every lesson in the fall is harvesting those mature plants."