DEER RIVER — A pizza party is in the works in Deer River.
Over the past three weeks, local kids have been prepping and planting a “pizza garden” outside of King Elementary School. The community garden, previously run by the University of Minnesota Extension Master Gardener program, fizzled out during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thanks to funding and new leadership from community sponsors and programs, the garden experienced a makeover this summer.
The idea for a pizza garden — a garden growing tomatoes, peppers, herbs and everything (other than wheat) needed for pizza — came from the children.
“Some kids had an idea that they really wanted to do, and they were really passionate about it,” said Ethan Thompson, Boys and Girls Club youth programmer. “They started actually campaigning to do [a] pizza garden.”
The plan is to host a community pizza party in September, using the ingredients kids grew over the summer (and maybe some pepperoni from the store) to make the pizzas.
The garden includes eight new raised beds where the pizza ingredients, and other typical garden plants, like carrots, are being grown. The kids are also tending to one strawberry bed and two pumpkin patches.
The pumpkins will be used at Deer River’s annual pumpkin carving event. The event, where around 100 pumpkins are provided for kids to carve, has been going on for around 10 years.
This year, funding for the pumpkins was cut.
“It was a great time to just be like, ‘We’re growing our own pumpkins,’” said Kayleen Monacelli, director of the Boys and Girls Club and community education. “So, we’re growing our own pumpkins this year.”
The event is set to be hosted in October. Like the pizza party, the event will be a full circle moment for the kids.
“The kids are growing, they’re carving, they get to bring them home — it’ll be really neat,” Monacelli said.
So far, over 35 kids have contributed to the garden. Throughout the summer, youths from the Boys and Girls Club, Community Education, Community Tech Hub and Full Service Community School will tend to the plants.
“Kids like to work. They live up to their expectations,” said Jaeger Jergenson, grant manager of the Full Service Community School program. “And when you give them an opportunity to grow, it’s just kind of the most rewarding thing from somebody on the outside to watch, that they’re having fun learning their own capabilities.”
Providing opportunities like the garden is important for children, Thompson said.
"There's a lot of kids right now that just don’t get to do stuff like this, because well, we just don’t have a lot of access. This is expensive.”
Thompson took over the garden when it needed a new steward.
“He was very ‘green thumb’ and had passion for growing, and so he took it on as his baby,” Monacelli said.
Thompson has led the garden effort for a few years. It wasn’t until this summer, though, that his efforts fully took shape, thanks to some community partnerships.
Forward Health Foundation, United Way and Essentia Health provided funding for the garden. Jergenson said the three partners have funded everything needed for the garden.
Not only is the garden back this year, but it’s also larger. Thompson said the garden space has almost doubled in size, going from around 50 square feet to 100 square feet.
“We have the most stuff we’ve ever had, we have the most prep and planting that we have ever had,” Thompson said. “This year, my biggest hope is that we actually have a big harvest.”
The kids are excited for what the summer brings, and for the pizza at the end. One of the kids working in the garden, rising seventh grader Paisley Washburn, described the slice of pizza she is hoping for in September.
“A lot of vegetables, because I just like almost every vegetable,” Paisley said. “It’d be like a lot of tomatoes and stuff.”
Plants need to grow and time needs to pass before Deer River children get to taste their hard work, but it seems their pizza party plans are off to a strong start.
