Harvest season on the farm
Sep. 20—RIO GRANDE, Ohio — The team from Bob Evans Restaurants recently joined up with a local grade school for its Bob Evans Garden Project, which is focused on teaching kids about gardening and educating them on the importance of agriculture.
According to a news release sent on behalf of Bob Evans Restaurants, earlier this Spring, Chris Williams, the farm manager who has worked on the Bob Evans Farm for 30 years, and her team came up with the idea to plant a community garden in front of the iconic white barn on the original Bob Evans Farm in Rio Grande, Ohio to use as an educational space and resource to give back to the community.
To assist with planting the seedlings for the garden, Williams enlisted the help of local second, third and fourth-grade students from Vinton Elementary back in May.
"These enthusiastic students got their hands dirty and learned about planting, gardening, and farming firsthand throughout the afternoon," stated the news release. "Chris also taught them about sustainable gardening practices, such as using a compost pile for fertilizer and rain barrels to gather water to nourish the plants."
Then, last week, students from Vinton Elementary returned to the Bob Evans Farm to continue their education and help Williams and her team with the final harvest of the produce from the garden they helped plant.
The news release further stated, "These farm-fresh vegetables were donated to The Grace United Methodist Church's food pantry in Gallipolis, Ohio. Throughout the summer, the Bob Evans team made deliveries every other week to the food pantry as the tomatoes, squash, peppers and cucumbers in the garden ripened, totaling more than 400 pounds of food."
"It was such a joy to watch the kids see the actual fruits of their labor from earlier this year and help pick the vegetables and box them up to donate," said Williams, farm manager. "It's also extremely rewarding for our team to take an empty plot of land and reimagine it to serve as a force to do some good in our community, by both educating our youth about farming and helping nourish those in need with farm-fresh food. I think our founder, Bob, would be proud. We look forward to continuing and evolving the Bob Evans Garden Project next year."
As previously reported by Ohio Valley Publishing, Bob Evans Restaurants will be celebrating the fall harvest season this year with the 50th annual Bob Evans Farm Festival on Friday, Oct. 8 through Sunday, Oct. 10, at the Bob Evans Farm in Rio Grande.
Information provided on behalf of Bob Evans Restaurants.
