Lower Elementary

Bridge House School Herb Garden

We are an external service provider that provides a catering service to schools in the Western Cape. We asked for a small piece of land to plant herbs that we could use in our meals. The junior school gardening club then assisted us in planting the herbs. It would be great to have a larger piece of land to grow more vegtables or even fruit.

Hillis School Gardners

Hillis Elementary School started their garden in the spring of 2011. Thanks to Beth Sloan, principal at Hillis, The garden is incorporated into the everyday life of the school. Each Wednesday, every student participates in Eco Hour. This hour has a wide array of topics that cover nutrition, horticulture, and environmental stewardship. Des Moines FoodCorps helps with lesson plans for the 5th grade and Stephanie Peterson, garden coordinator, supports the rest of Hillis. Some lessons have included school wide crock pot day, sweet potato day, and interactive nutrition lessons.

Moulton Extended Learning Center

The original garden was started over 10 years ago. Des Moines FoodCorps helped revitalize the garden with Ms. Rushing, Ms. Johnson, and Ms. Werning this past spring. The site is 40x70 feet and is also supported by Christian Family Urban Ministries with after school programing throughout the entire year. The program through CFUM, Food Club, allows students to cook, grow and get their hands dirty! 

Lowell Elementary (Waterloo FoodCorps)

 People's Garden Grant installed a garden here in spring 2012. In conjunction with this garden, there are classes on gardening and cooking with garden produce.

Valley Elementary School Garden

 The Valley Elementary School gardens were created to both beautify the campus and provide learning opportunities for all students.  All students, preschool-5th grade participate in the planting, cultivation, and harvesting of the gardens.  There is one small, more decorative bed located in front of the school, close to where parents drop their kids off, and another larger bed behind the school nestled amongst the playground.  During the growing season, kids love to pick cherry tomatoes at recess!

Postville Community Garden

 The Postville Community Garden is a beautiful and sprawling space dedicated to bring people from diverse backgrounds together to grow their own food.  About a third of the garden is grown for and by students from Postville Community School District.  During the growing season, elementary students gather on a weekly basis to care for the garden, learn about growing practices, and prepare a healthy snack.  All food produced by the garden is either sent home with the students who grow it, or sent to the school cafeteria.

Madison Farm to Fork Farm to School Program

This is a service site with the national program FoodCorps.

The Farm to School program serves students in the Ennis School District. Students engage in regular classes in the newly built Ennis School Garden, receive nutrition education lessons, take field trips to local farms and ranches, participate in Good Thymes Camp (a summer day camp with a focus on sustainable agriculture & natural resource conservation), and much more! The Farm to School program is also working with the Ennis School Lunch program to source and serve more fresh, local foods in the lunchroom. 

 

St. Joseph Community School Garden

This fall was our second year of our garden program. Our garden reaches K-8 every student in multiple ways. 5th and 6th grade students help with the planting and harvesting, and all students use produce in cooking lessons, eat produce in school lunches and classroom snacks, and use the garden in class curriculum. Family volunteers help with summer maintenance. We also donate excess produce to our local food pantry. We had a large plot at our local hospital gardens and four new raised beds. This spring, we hope to add additional raised beds and are looking into a hoop house.

 

Turkey Valley Community School District

Turkey Valley has had a school garden for several years. It is primarily cared for by the 4th grade classroom, with help from the High School environmental science classes. All students K-12 enjoy garden produce in our cafeteria.

Through the Northeast Iowa Food & Fitness Initiative, Turkey Valley has been home to a FoodCorps service member since the 2011-2012 school year.

Con Sabor

The program presents Cuban recipes, using local products. It shows traditional and current Cuban cuisine, with information about the healthy cook. We present many materials related with botanical and cultural characteristics of many edible plants, in order to show the rich biodiversity of them. There are some messages about the relation between food production and environment. It has a deep educational purpose.

I have published 6 cookbooks and several healthy food papers, such as:

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