Story by Abby Warren

On Monday, October 24th, State Law Makers took a trip to Madison High School to celebrate the first-annual National Food Day.

While there are a number of school gardens in Portland metropolitan area elementary schools - such as the school-community garden at Vestal elementary, Madison is the only highschool in the area that is host to a school-community garden. Lunch time at Madison features fresh, colorful fruits and vegetables from the garden, and students benefit from a better understanding of - and connection to - their food supply.

Thanks to impressive work done by the dedicated students at Grant Highschool, Portland will see another community garden opened on school property most likely in Spring 2012. This student-initiated, student-designed, and student-run project, in partnership with Portland Community Gardens and Portland Public Schools will offer opportunities for students and neighbors to get outside together as they grow not only local, sustainable, healthy produce- but also Portland's movement towards healthy parks and healthy people.