Kathy Komarek, 61, steadies a pumpkin for Esther Hung Pai, 10, as she scrapes the seeds out. Toward the end, it gets too hard for Esther's tiny hands to clean out her pumpkin, so Kathy takes over. Younger and older hands continue working in unison.

Through a program called Connecting Generations, those hands have been working together in unison at Harrington Elementary in the Cole neighborhood.

Connecting Generations pairs senior adult volunteers with elementary-age students in Denver Public Schools to teach them about nutrition and gardening.

It began as a pilot program in 2008 at Fairview and Harrington elementaries as a collaborative project between several community-based organizations, including Denver Urban Gardens.

The program is currently trying to expand citywide to Edison, Park Hill, Bradley, Brown and Johnson elementaries.

The year-round program begins in the classroom with nutritional lessons and then moves to a school garden for students who want to participate weekly in an after-school gardening club. Because of the greater interest on healthy eating districtwide, more school gardens are sprouting up providing an opportunity that didn't used to exist, said Maureen Hearty, Denver Urban Garden education facilitator.

Kids plant in the spring, tend to their garden in the summer, harvest in the fall and put the garden to bed in the winter. They also host their own farmers market and each week there's a healthy dose of education tied into an activity, Hearty said.

Last week at Harrington, for example, students learned that pumpkin innards could be composted instead of thrown out. Students did just that in their outdoor garden before carving their jack-o'-lantern.

Composting is a word they've learned through repetition, Hearty said. Older adult mentors and Denver Urban Gardens staff try to make constant connections between what kids have learned in the classroom and gardening. After all, it's a program all about connections - between young and old, healthy eating and gardening and connecting the community, which comes together to help tend the garden, Hearty said.

Uniting two generations helps grow the gardening experiencing, she said.

"You have wisdom shared from old to young and young to old," Hearty said.

It's the vitality of youth that Komarek, known on occasion as "Ms. Nutrition," appreciates.

"Just seeing their delight, it's so much fun," she said.

There are currently 28 students and two older adult mentors in the program between Harrington and Fairview. Since Connecting Generations is expanding, older adult mentors are needed. To get involved, call Jessica at 303-292-9900 or e-mail expanding@dug.org.