Usually getting young children to eat their vegetables is a challenge.

But when kids grow the veggies themselves to be used in hot vegetable soup, their interest apparently dramatically increases.

Most of the ingredients from two batches served at Washington Irving Elementary School on Tuesday originated in the school's vegetable garden, recently transformed from a strip of barren land and grass on the school's south side.

Last spring, students in all of Irving's 23 classes were given a section and asked which crops they wanted to plant, said Jassen Strokosch, a parent and former Irving PTO president who helped organize the garden.

"It was really crazy," said Strokosch. "We had zucchini, sunflowers, tomatoes, watermelon, you name it."

The garden is one of Irving's efforts for the Oak Park Elementary School District 97's "zero waste" initiative, which aims to reduce the district's environmental footprint. School officials are also hoping to start feeding the garden with compost from leftover lunch waste later this year.

At the school on Tuesday, portions of the vegetable garden's harvest were served up in the creations of both Ron Martin and Melissa Elsmo, local chefs who cook and cater.

Elsmo incorporated lemongrass and garlic in hers; Martin added a bit of chili paste and mushroom to flavor his.

About twenty minutes after the after school servings started, 300 cups of hot soup were finished and both pots were empty. Martin even had to turn down students seeking additional helpings.

"We started with about 60 cups out and then realized we were just way behind," Martin said.