Nearly 50 employees of the Target Import Warehouse spent Monday honoring the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy by serving in their community.

The company gave a grant to Booker T. Washington Elementary School that also included the service of employees, said Jenny Owens, a reading specialist and sponsor of the garden club at the school.

“They have been extremely generous,” Owens said.

The Target group initially planned to work only in the school’s community garden.

“We got a monkey wrench with the temperature and the snow,” Owens said.

The backup plan necessitated by the weather included painting the school’s professional development room until the sun hit the garden. Volunteers started at 7 a.m.

About 9 a.m., a few brave souls bundled up and ventured outside to clean out dead vegetation and prepare the garden for spring planting.

“The garden club is going to make the decisions about what to put back in,” Owens said, adding that students are often excited about trying new, healthy foods if they helped grow them.

“If you plant the seed, I think you’re invested in what grows and you’ll try it,” Owens said.

The Target employees always enjoy helping in the community and are excited to volunteer, said Cheryl Lawton, who coordinated the effort.

“It’s just a matter of putting out the word, and usually people will sign up,” she said. “Part of this is continuing to have that ongoing relationship with our community.”

Warehouse employees typically participate in many community events throughout the year, Lawton added, including reading to students at schools, fundraisers for various diseases and parades.

The grant that goes along with the volunteers, for $6,000, will be used to help purchase equipment and build raised beds, Owens said.

Dr. David Reitz, principal of Booker T. Washington Elementary School, said the grant and volunteers were “a great opportunity to show that partnership with us and the businesses.”