Pre-Kindergarten

The Lockeland Design Center garden will be comprised of three connected areas: a raised bed food production area, a butterfly garden area, and a school classroom area. The garden is to be located in the back of the school, just outside the cafeteria. This area was chosen for both it’s proximity to an existing water source, and for security as it located within a fenced area.

AGAPE 24-hr CDC is partnering with Project Sweetie Pie and other community gardening programs to help strengthen family/community educational, wealth, and wellness goals.  We expect to see changes in the relationhip to food consuming and food growing/producing, leading to making better/smarter choices in food selection while increasing family/student health and wealth attainment.  Our centers are located in one of the largest urban areas in Minnesota.  We face health, education, and wealth disparities that can be addressed through our project's practical approach.  Our engagement objective 

Ōtaki is a town of 7,000 on one side the Taraura ranges, the other, Kapiti Island and the sea,  through our small gardening group formed informerly over the last three years, we have an agreed statement  which supports our aim:

‘ all children regardless of their educational preference will have access to a gardening curriculum in Ōtaki”

Our point of difference is that we have in our town  Te Wānanga-o-Raukawa, the māori university, whose philosophy underpins some of our teachings.

In our town there is:

EFNEP stands for Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program. EFNEP is funded by the United States Department of Agriculture, National Institute for Food and Agriculture and the University of Maryland Extension. The major goals of EFNEP are to help limited-income families and youth acquire knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behavior changes necessary to promote health/wellness and reduce chronic risk. For more information about EFNEP contact Dr. Mira Mehta.