Middle School

The Anderson Valley Jr/Sr High School Garden provides an excellent opportunity for students and faculty to participate in agriculture and healthy school environments. The garden is nestled within a 7 acre active school farm which produces eggs and livestock for the surrounding community of Boonville, California.

As a community wide school we have set many goals for our garden. We hope to continue to involve as many community members, parents, teachers and students as we have had in the past to help bring our garden to life. This grant would give us the wonderful opportunity to purchase tools, materials, seeds, dirt, nets etc that will enhance the experience of not only planting and growing in our garden but also of having the children experience what it's like to hold a shovel, to hold a plant bulb and to wear garden gloves to name just a few!

The FACE's community garden allows students with autism to take responsibility for caring for a garden every day. We envision an outdoor classroom where academic skills such as math, science, nutrition, language arts and social studies concepts are taught. Additionally, the hands on sensory impact of working in the garden is very therapeutic to many children with autism. Others benefit from improved social skills due to the partnership with students at Tampa's Learning Gate Community School, whose students work inclusively along side our students with autism.

The goal of the garden is to connect students to healthy produce, to help them understand where food comes from, and teach them to be able to grow their own vegetables. The region surrounding the school has a limited supply of produce, which is often flavorless, non-organic, non-local and grown from GMO seeds. Through education, opportunity and healthy eating and nutrition experiences, the school hopes to combat the levels of high cholesterol and diabetes in the community.