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EDGARD — Lorenzo Edwards and Rochelle Darville of West St. John High School applied for the 2020-2021 Louisiana Healthy Communities Coalition Mini-Grant in November 2020 and were notified in January 2021 that they were one of the schools that received the grant.

Edwards is the ProStart instructor at West St. John High, and Darville is the eighth grade science and social Studies teacher under the direction of Principal Claude Hill.

Once granted the LHCC Mini-Grant, Edwards and Darville started making a shopping list of all the things that they would need to start their school and community garden. They prepared a budget and visited Home Depot in LaPlace to purchase the materials needed to start a raised bed garden. Home Depot of LaPlace, through their excitement of wanting to help and give back to the community, donated their time to help construct the raised garden.

Earlier this month, Home Depot delivered the wood, shovel, rake and other materials purchased for the garden. Home Depot of LaPlace and the students constructed five raised beds. The students have started planting fruits and vegetables within the past week.

There will also be volunteers from the community that will help to keep the school and community garden up and ready for harvest in May. The plan is to cook the vegetables and fruits after harvesting in May and plant enough next year to sell to the community.

The students and community members that helped construct the raised bed school and community garden included: Alton Sarrizan, Rontrelle Turner; Brian Singleton and Chantell Simon, Home Depot operations manager.