As Garden Coordinator of Edible Education Experience, Brad Jones handles everything related to the 3,000 sq.ft. Culinary Garden, from planning the crops and coordinating edible lessons with teachers to providing hands-on experiences for garden visitors and harvesting the garden’s produce.

But Brad didn’t start his career as a horticulturist. With a Bachelor Degree in Accounting from Trevecca Nazarene College, Brad worked for a few years as an auditor at a hotel on International Drive. When he realized that accounting was not his calling, Brad switched gears to serve as a firefighter with city of Orlando for 25 years.

With a servant’s heart, Brad found a new calling in 2003, when his daughter was a first-grader at Orlando Junior Academy. Feeling a need to tie-in Florida’s natural beauty with what his daughter was learning in school, Jones began to see the school’s campus itself as a teaching tool. Not one to suggest an idea and simply walk away, Brad rolled up his sleeves and worked side-by-side with teachers and administrators to build a small garden plot.