Middle School

Currently our garden is used primarily for the 3rd grade curriculum in our school. The garden is small and we would like to expand the number of beds in the garden, build a small greenhouse and have enough shovels, rakes, and hoes of varying sizes so that the garden is usable by all of our grades. We would like to produce enough food to eventually use for school lunches. Currently we harvest vegetables to make a weekly "stone soup" for the 3rd grade to eat for lunch.

The goal of our garden is to share the pleasures of being outdoors and growing food with our students. Children love being outdoors, with their hands in the soil, looking at different kinds of bugs, watching the seeds they planted growing, and discovering that, in fact, they can eat this growing thing. When students are interested and motivated in the subject at hand, learning comes easy. We believe that the experience and skills that students gain from working in a garden stays with them, and causes them to respect their food and the Earth throughout their lives.

A school / community garden is a grass root approach to advance a healthy lifestyle through hands-on agriculture. Students with diverse needs will be exposed to a unique learning environment which will encourage them to eat healthier and give them the knowledge to be more self-sufficient.

MCG works with the Stoklosa school community to vision, implement, and train volunteers in urban organic food production as a tool for hands on, experiential learning. The Goal of the Build-A-Garden to be located at the Stoklosa School is to: Provide garden education opportunities for students and volunteers in order to promote gardening, fresh food, health and wellness.