The Greenway Table is launching two new committees to educate students and community members.

The student education committee will be led by Greenway Table board member Dr. Murl Dirksen. The community education committee will be led by board member Paul Corder.

Director Jennifer Norton is working on developing classroom curriculum to use the garden as an educational tool for what students are studying.

She said this will be accomplished over the summer through a partnership with Lee University Department of Education students.

“The goal of the student education committee is to partner with teachers and educators at-large in the community to get students connected to food growth. And that’s going to be one of three ways: Lessons in the classroom ... coming to the garden and learning or curriculum-connected activity,” Norton said. “We have a lot of teachers who want to get involved.”

The Greenway Table and Cleveland/Bradley County Keep America Beautiful will be partnering for the education committee endeavors.

“We’re basically trying to do the same thing,” KAB Executive Director Joanne Maskew said. Maskew said she had been doing planting projects in the schools for years.

Norton said work has already begun on preparing the garden for another season.

“One of the things we are doing for weed control is chopping down the cover crop and planting into it,” Norton said.

Norton and Maskew agree that educating students on where food comes from is important.

Some of the initiatives have been done in the past, but the committees will provide expansion and added focus on community input driven changes.

The community education committee will focus on open houses, public gardening and cooking classes, the Community Gardening Initiative and OnSite education.

The first meeting of the community education committee will be Thursday from 3:30 to 4 p.m. in the Community Room of the Cleveland Public Library.

Norton said the open houses will have members of the community come work in the garden.