If the school lunch is yucky, kids at east Cobb's Sope Creek Elementary might be tempted to step outside and pluck a fresh cantaloupe, a tomato or strawberries.

Food doesn't come from a can, and that's part of the lesson students will learn this year. Fresh is best.

Frank Niemeir/fniemeir@ajc.com (ENLARGE)

Sope Creek Elementary children listen as Joe Reynolds talks about the schoolyard gardens.

Frank Niemeir/fniemeir@ajc.com (ENLARGE)

Sope Creek Elementary student Molly Fishman, 8, plants seeds in a garden at the school Friday. Students will learn lessons from their garden work.

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The most popular visiting teacher at the east Cobb school may prove to be "Farmer Joe," a Douglas County farmer who is sharing his skills and know-how.

On Friday morning, Joe Reynolds joined the faculty to welcome the throng of parents and students pouring onto campus for "meet and greet" day. His classroom: the new schoolyard vegetable gardens, a hands-on learning laboratory for kids who assume squash grows at the supermarket.

This edible schoolyard is patterned after a program that began in California as a way to educate kids about nutrition. It is sprouting at Sope Creek thanks to a grant from the Mendez Foundation for the national "Seeds of Nutrition" program. Two Fulton County schools — Cascade Elementary and Ron Clark Academy — are participating.

Reynolds will be on campus from time to time to lend a hand and expertise. Once a week, chef Seth Freedman will show kids what can be done in the kitchen with the fruits of their labor. Garden educator Nichole Lupo will work with teachers once a month to incorporate hands-on gardening into their curriculum. She will work weekly with students to tend the plots and incorporate learning of everything from social studies to science and math.

Third-graders, for instance, will learn about soil and pH levels, conservation and units of measure as they collect water from rain barrels around school cisterns. They'll learn about barometric pressure and temperature, and they will develop their own schedule for watering, said Natalie Rogers, a PTA parent volunteer helping to spearhead the nutrition education program.

Reynolds isn't a faculty member — not even a real teacher — but he uses sustainable farming methods in Douglasville, where he is partner in Small Farm CSA, a community-supported agriculture farm.

On this morning, he explained the history of Cherokee Trail of Tears beans, a vanishing variety of pole beans. He helped kids plant their seeds in one of several raised beds on the campus.

Kids poked holes into the prepared soil, dropped in cantaloupe, squash, pea, bean and sunflower seeds, gently patted dirt over them and hoped for a harvest by late fall.

Emily Evans, 9, a fourth-grader, along with her siblings Nick and Taylor, bent over the bean garden and helped pinch the soil closed over the new seed crop.

Nick was full of questions for Reynolds about the history of Cherokee Indians taking the seeds with them from Georgia on their forced march to Oklahoma.

"This is really neat," Emily said. "They never did this back at my old school in Florida."