Treva Jenkins has been instrumental in planting seeds of change in a group of Dayton school students; but, she hasn’t worked alone.

“It’s a tremendous collaboration; more than you can imagine when you start out,” said Jenkins.

It all started as an idea in Peter Benkendorf’s head. Then, he gathered several people together to help implement his idea.

“We view school based community gardens as a way to get kids and adults working together, but not just in a single community,” said Benkendorf.

Indeed, it took the joining of many communities to get Seeds of Change rolling.

Students involved in the Street Peace program actually funded the garden.

“The kids raised money by reading,” said Jenkins.

Then, they got to work in the garden.

“We had to rake the dirt and get the soil ready, get it soft, so we could plant everything,” said Robert Alston, a student at Ruskin PK-8 School.

Now, the garden is part of the curriculum at Ruskin PK-8 School.

“There’s a lot of different aspects of science and math that can be tied into the garden,” said Benkendorf.

The students have also learned life lessons.

“We learned that it’s really cheap to grow your own crops and they taste way better,” said David Betancourt, a student at Ruskin PK-8 School.

They’ve also learned about giving, since their harvest will go to the Target Ministries.

This is just the first of what Jenkins, Benkendorf and the others involved hope will grow into many gardens around the Miami Valley.

“We want bunches of them,” said Jenkins. “We hope that we can establish gardens throughout the city.”

In 2010 the Seeds of Change program will expand. They plan on planting another garden at Edison Elementary Neighborhood School Center.