JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - First, the Food Lion closed.

Then, Terry's Country Store.

Now, there are no stores that offer fresh, affordable, healthy food on Mayport Road and the neighborhoods that flank it.

Mayport Coastal Sciences Academy is the middle school where children living in these neighborhoods attend classes.

The school received funding from the USDA's Farm-to-School Grant Program, which benefits schools located in food deserts.

Social Studies teacher John Meeks explained residents living in food deserts, "rely on dollar stores and drug stores with highly processed foods" to eat.

"They're overpaying for food they could get at a grocery store that is too far away," he explained.

Garden manager Mary Ellen Waugh, along with a handful of volunteers, works with the students every week for about 20 minutes.

Volunteer Victoria Miller was instructing students when News4JAX visited about pruning some of the vegetables that are now sprouting from the soil.

When asked why she enjoys volunteering, she said, "I think because kids need to see that they can grow their own food and see that they can do it themselves."

Principal Aaron Lakatos said the opportunity to work in the garden and watch vegetables grow is providing 6th-grade students an opportunity to learn through hands-on teaching.

"It ties in everything else; Nutrition, science, engineering, technology, and what you're doing is, when you're seeing something in a textbook or something on a computer screen it doesn't really do it justice. When you actually see it grow, and you see it from a seed all the way developing that we can actually produce the crop and give them out, that's a huge impact on the kids," said Lakatos.

The students are growing cabbage, kale, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, collard greens, spinach, cilantro and dill. They should be ready to harvest at the beginning of the year.

The school's goal is to produce 1,500 pounds of produce based on the seasonal growth chart. It will be donated to BEAM's Mayport food pantry so it can be distributed to the local community to reduce food insecurity.