WATERVILLE, Maine (AP) — It was supposed to be a lesson in growing your own food, healthy eating and helping the less fortunate. Instead, a group of Maine fifth-graders got a lesson in the harsh realities of life.

When students at the Albert S. Hall School in Waterville went out last week to harvest the yellow onions planted last spring, they found that all 100 had been stolen.

Their plan was to give half the onions to a homeless shelter and half to the school kitchen to be used in school lunches.

Student Ashley Harwood called the theft "kind of depressing." Student Hannah Hall says the class was sad.

Teacher Mary Dunn says she plans to turn the theft into a lesson anyway, about coming together when things don't go as planned.