Chicopee girl's cabbage earns her a $1,000 savings bond

Date: 3/9/2011

March 9, 2011

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor

CHICOPEE — The Massachusetts winner of a national program to encourage children to grow cabbage plants has a secret: she doesn't like cabbage.

Kathleen Brooks, a fourth grader at the Anna E. Berry School and the daughter of Shane and Eileen Brooks, received a $1,000 savings bond to be used for education.

Kathleen participated in the program last year. Sponsored by Bonnie Plants, the program is designed to encourage an interest in gardening in third-graders. More than 1.5 million children in 45 states participated last year.

Each year, Bonnie Plants delivers free cabbage plants to third grade teachers who have signed up for the program online at www.bonnieplants.com. If properly cared for, the plants can yield a 40-pound cabbage.

A photo of the student with his or her cabbage is submitted to the company, which then turns them over to each state's agriculture department. State officials draw a winner by random selection.

"The Bonnie Plants Cabbage Program is our way of engaging children in the joy of gardening," Stan Cope, president of Bonnie Plants, said. "Gardening provides children with a safe place to experience nature, discover the cycles of life and develop an understanding of our environment.

"It also exposes children, first hand, to the benefits of growing your own nutritious food and it's a great source of physical activity. The cabbage program, over the past 15 years, has proved to be an enriching hands-on experience that kids and teachers across America have embraced. Seeing students excited about learning and the art of gardening is what we strive for."

Kathleen said raising the giant cabbage "wasn't really difficult." She grew it in her grandfather's garden.

"It seemed like fun," she said of her reason to participate in the program.

Shane said his daughter took the task of caring for the plant seriously and checked on it frequently.

At the end of the season, the cabbage found its way to Del Monte's Bridge Caf , where it was made into cole slaw.

Kathleen doesn't like cole slaw, either.