From Small Seeds to Community Impact
At Belle Chasse Academy (BCA), a school partner in Emeril Lagasse Foundation’s signature program, Emeril’s Culinary Garden & Teaching Kitchen, students are learning that food can do more than nourish the body — it can build confidence, spark curiosity, and strengthen communities.
For Raegan, a student participating in the program at BCA, that learning extended far beyond the classroom through one small hydroponic grow kit. As part of the program’s BAM! Box initiative, students bring gardening and culinary learning home through hands-on growing experiences designed to connect families to fresh food, nutrition education, and each other.
What began as growing fresh herbs and lettuce at home has flourished into something much bigger: a passion for food, a sense of responsibility, and a new way of connecting with her community.
Last fall, students at BCA received BAM! Boxes, take-home hydroponic grow kits, as part of Emeril’s Culinary Garden & Teaching Kitchen. Each kit brings gardening to life through a hands-on system with everything needed to cultivate fresh herbs and greens at home. This six-week grow cycle experience is paired with culinary learning and real-world applications.
The experience took root quickly at home.
“When the first tiny sprout grew out of the pod — she was so excited,” her parent, Valerie, shared. “She nurtured them every day, and if something didn’t seem right, she would ask questions and try to figure out what the plant needed.”
That process built gardening skills, confidence in the kitchen, at the table, and beyond. Raegan now helps make mashed potatoes, cooks breakfast, and experiments with baked goods. Her curiosity has expanded past vegetables into baking, snacks, and creating her own drinks.
Though their home doesn’t have the ideal sunlight for a full garden, Raegan has found other ways to grow in addition to the BAM! Box. She tends a blueberry bush, a lemon bush, and her own succulents, watering and caring for them each week, and enjoying watching new blooms appear.
The impact shows up at school, too. When asked her favorite activity, Raegan’s answer was immediate: “helping my teacher with her hydroponic garden.” She sometimes stays in from recess to do it.
“This opportunity has given her the confidence to share knowledge with others and speak up,” Valerie said.
Along the way, she’s learned lessons that go deeper than gardening. One that surprised her: having to cut back the weakest sprouts so others could thrive. “It surprised her,” Valerie said, “but she understood that it leads to a stronger, healthier plant.”
Her proudest moment came after harvesting her greens and turning them into salads for the community fridge. As she watched someone choose the salad she grew herself, the BAM! Box became a lesson in generosity, community, and the joy of sharing with others.
“That was her favorite moment,” Valerie said. “To be able to share her success with others has shown her that ‘little’ things can have a big impact within her own community.”
“Being part of this program has really fostered Raegan’s love of gardening. It makes her feel important to have a role — and then gain gratification from it. To be part of something, feel the success, and have the support has been a tremendous, holistic opportunity to enhance her sense of self.”
And if you ask Raegan what she’d tell another student about the BAM! Box? “That it’s a really cool experiment… and that kids would have fun doing it.”
Raegan’s story is one of many unfolding across Emeril Lagasse Foundation’s school partner network. Through Emeril’s Culinary Garden & Teaching Kitchen, students and families around the country are building lifelong connections to food, nutrition, and wellness while discovering how small moments of learning can create meaningful change in the communities where they live.
