Growing relationships and young minds in school gardens could die on the vine without more green stuff, if that green stuff is money.

The Montezuma School to Farm Project in southwest Colorado is facing hardships, just months after its students were planting cauliflower, broccoli, peas and other vegetables in the White House kitchen garden. The students, from Kemper Elementary School in Cortez, returned in June for the harvest with first lady Michelle Obama. 

But that was then. School programs have sprung up across the state to let kids get their hands dirty learning about how good is grown. The government, however, hasn’t provided a fertile source for funding.

The Cortez Journal reported Friday that Zoe Nelsen, director of the Montezuma School to Farm Project, is stepping down after nine months. The program has struggled to find money and could face more cuts as a result, organizers said.

The project provides agriculture education for K-12 students in Cortez, Mancos and Dolores.

The Journal explains:

Nelsen said School to Farm took a financial hit from a statewide cut in severance tax through the Colorado conservation board. She had applied for several U.S. Department of Agriculture grants, but they were not awarded.

The program is expected to bring in about $202,000 in grant revenue for 2017, but it anticipates $251,000 in expenditures, according to Mancos Conservation District budget information on the state Department of Local Affairs website. School to Farm brought in about $248,000 in grant revenue in 2016, and spent about $261,000, according to the Colorado Department of Local Affairs.

As severance tax allotments from the stay dry up, so do school gardens.

Severance taxes are the levy paid by companies for the oil, gas, coal and other minerals they extract. With those products on the financial wane in Colorado, so is the severance tax money for such local projects as School to Farm gardens. In 2015, the legislature moved $20 million from the severance tax fund to the state’s general fund, leaving such programs as School to Farm in a lurch. Chew on that, kids.

That’s peanuts, however, next to the $115 million in severance tax refunds due to oil and gas companies after a state Supreme Court ruled in May. The high court said the companies had been wrongfully  denied tax deductions for several years.

Supporters of the Montezuma program are hoping tax-deductible donations can bridge the funding gap. 

The money hasn’t kept pace with the growth in the program. Since its launch in 2009, School to Farm has grown from 40 students to more than 2,000 students, the Cortez Journal reported.