Community gardens at Murphy High School cultivate teamwork, nutrition awareness and community impact

^{Spire volunteers at Mobile's Murphy High School}

At Spire, we’re proud to support programs that build equitable food access. And by educating students on nutrition and gardening while also providing nourishment for school-aged learners and free produce for the community, the Farm-to-Table program at Murphy High School does just that. 

To mark the one-year anniversary of unveiling Mobile County Public Schools’ first “Farm to Table” program and teaching farm, volunteers from Spire returned to Murphy High School last week to help augment the facilities and make it even easier for the community to access fresh, free produce from the farm.

Working alongside Murphy High students, the group completed several tasks, including mowing and weeding, building a tool shed, designing and constructing a share house for extra fruits and vegetables available to the community and installing irrigation hoses to the school's 34 raised garden beds.

The program, which incorporates science, math and the culinary arts into a hands-on learning environment, saw substantial growth in its first year. Spire provided the necessary funding to establish the teaching farm and supporting curriculum.

“After our original gift from Spire, we have gone from one 880-foot greenhouse and 10 raised beds to 34 raised beds, four fruit trees, 20 blueberry bushes and two blackberry bushes,” said Rebecca Mullins, science department chair at Murphy High School. “We are looking forward to fall planting and cultivating strawberries in the greenhouse for spring.”

Students who participate in the program also helped out around the farm and cooked lunch for our volunteers from Spire.