In his family’s Wilton canning plant during World War II, Vance Wells worked alongside friends and neighbors canning vegetables to ship to soldiers overseas. Friday, in the Wiscasset Elementary School gym he said was bigger than the canning plant, Wells, 88, encouraged students to keep learning to grow food in the school gardens the morning’s assembly was celebrating.

Wartime efforts like the one he helped with as a teen show Maine has the resources to increase the amount of food it grows, Wells, now of Lincolnville, said. “But we need to train people like you to go out there and learn about plants and about weeds, so that the plants can produce more food for us ... You kids have really done a great job.”

He hoped they would go on to start community gardens so no one goes hungry in the morning, added Wells, standing with a handheld microphone as he faced students sitting on the gym floor.

Wells serves on the board of the nonprofit Time & Tide, which donated $250 this school year toward the gardens Jan Whitfield of the Garden Club of Wiscasset said are in their third year.

The garden club, Wiscasset’s Morris Farm and the school started and maintain the gardens. Friday’s assembly honored all involved. At the request of Time & Tide Chairman Paul Miller, the students gave themselves a round of applause. The gardens were planned as part of the school’s move to Federal Street from the primary school next door to Morris Farm on Gardiner Road, Whitfield said.

The cafeteria staff made kale chips and prepared other foods from the gardens, Whitfield said. Vegetables have also gone to St. Philip’s Episcopal Church’s food pantry, she said. 

Miller told students the healthy foods make them bigger and stronger and will help them make a better, stronger state and world.

A snow day delayed the assembly one month, putting it on St. Patrick’s Day eve Friday. That added a green dimension that included WES Administrative Assistant Cindy Collamore’s sporting a green western hat she got at the Christmas Tree Shop in Augusta. She likes dressing fun for the kids, she said. It was her first time wearing the hat to school, she said after the assembly as a student approached to show her his loose tooth.

When third graders took their turn on the risers, Liam Moore portrayed a leprechaun. He held out a gourd, waved to the audience multiple times and at one point raised the hat over his head with both hands and a smile.

In statements and songs, classes shared their learning and expressed thanks for all the help with the garden and related projects including making apple cider. Students at the microphone recounted crushing the apples, squeezing out the juice, sharing a toast and then drinking the cider. Lisa “Farmer Lisa” Packard of Morris Farm helped them act out the toast. 

In his remarks to the students, Wells, who served in the Army in Europe after World War II, said for them to keep loving the gardens and one another every day.

Speaking with Garden Club of Wiscasset member Linda Belmont in the gym later, he added, love is the cheapest resource.

It helps the vegetables and flowers grow, Belmont agreed. She talks to her plants, she said.