A program in Temecula schools that allows children to work in gardens on their campuses and learn about growing food and plants has earned the district a statewide award.

There are gardens at 22 Temecula Valley Unified School District campuses, where children gets hands-on lessons about topics such as science, weather and healthy foods.

For that program, the district has received the Golden Bell Award from the California School Boards Association.

The award, in its 30th year, recognizes exemplary programs in 19 categories that are essential to support teaching and learning.

The garden program was honored in the student wellness category, which includes programs that address critical health issues and their link to student academic achievement.

This is the second consecutive year that Temecula has earned one of the awards.

In 2008, a language arts program developed by the district's elementary school teachers was recognized.

It's also the district's second recent honor related to gardening.

Harry Colmer, a volunteer who oversees the garden at Pauba Valley Elementary, was inducted into the Riverside County Education Hall of Fame in May.

School officials said the gardens have provided a number of benefits.

For instance, as Halloween approached last month, kindergarten students at Susan LaVorgna Elementary School in French Valley didn't have to leave school to visit a pumpkin patch.

They just had to walk to the school's garden in the back of the campus.

Two groups of children spent time in the garden on a recent Friday morning.

D'Anna Potter's kindergarteners were picking pumpkins, while first-graders from Joanie Wolkon's class were cleaning out their garden box in preparation of planting.

Wolkon said her science curriculum covers living things, so the garden gives her students a hands-on experience with plants.

"They love it," Wolkon said. "Not a lot of families have gardens in their yards."

She said children enjoy putting seeds in the soil, with the payoff coming in the spring when vegetables bloom and the children can makes salads and eat what they've grown.

"We're introducing to the kids that food doesn't come from Stater Bros. or Vons. It comes from the ground," said Michelle Callahan, LaVorgna's attendance clerk, who oversees the garden program at the school.

Callahan said that when budget cuts made it difficult to afford field trips to a pumpkin patch, she brought the pumpkin patch to them.

The goal was for each of the school's 120 kindergartners to be able to pick a pumpkin right from the soil, she said.

Potter told her students that after they picked their pumpkins, most of which were about the size of a baseball, they would learn about how the gourds grow and about their life cycle.

Like the other schools, LaVorgna relies on its students, volunteers and donors to make its garden grow.

The school district received a state grant a few years ago that allowed many of the gardens to begin, said Jodi McClay, the director of curriculum, instruction and assessment, who nominated the program for the award.

But it's ongoing donations of seeds, plants, mulch and the like that keep them running, she said.

McClay said the garden program is in its third year and the campuses are at different levels of development ---- from Colmer's elaborate setup at Pauba Valley to Temecula Middle School's garden, which is just getting started.

This is the second year for the garden at LaVorgna. There are roses, fruit trees, spices and vegetables being grown, with each teacher deciding what their class will plant and study.

"Our goal is to make it an outdoor classroom," Callahan said.

In her nomination essay, McClay wrote, "The impact of the program is best surmised by the following quote from one of our teachers: 'It's more than a garden. It's a science laboratory, a weather station, a silent dietitian, and a natural recycler. It's the site of real-world math and interactive cooperation, as well as a place where imagination and literature come to life.'"

Judges look for programs that make a difference for children, create community partnerships and can be replicated in other districts, McClay said.

"It's a huge honor" to get the award, she said.

The California School Boards Association, which bestows the annual awards, represents most of the state's more than 1,000 school districts and county offices of education.

Call staff writer Craig Shultz at 951-676-4315, ext. 2625.