Community gardening provides many benefits for students like outdoor physical activity, an understanding of plant life cycles, food production and healthy eating (Blair, 2009; Whiren, 1995). Gardening also provides hands-on learning opportunities to draw parallels between what is needed for plants to grow and what students need to be healthy. When a college of education and university office of community service learning partner with a K-8 school in an urban area, students and the neighborhood, all of those involved can benefit. Educators know that students learn by doing and that community involvement enriches the learning experience while teaching valuable lessons about giving back while helping others. This gardening project was part of a larger campus community gardening outreach project to address local food insufficiency concerns and provide education about sustainability via gardening. This successful project provides key insights into the need to make solid connections, in sequenced lessons, between what students' prior knowledge and what they see in their everyday lives, then tapping into their creativity. Diversity, plants, gardening, food, nutrition and related topics serve as vehicles to introduce concepts that integrate design and STEM education principles. [The College of Education and Human Services provided partial funding for this Partnership School Beautification and Gardening Project, which took place from May 1st to May 28th, 2012. Other support for this project was provided by Ohio Campus Compact through the Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) Summer Associates program.]