Upper Elementary

John M. Smyth Magnet School

This grant will make it possible to outfit our school greenhouse with soil, pots, grow boxes, educational materials and irrigation equipment that will help us maximize the amount of produce that students can start in the greenhouse and grow both in the garden and outdoors. Our goal is to bring vegetables that the students grow to the cafeteria for them to eat. Last year we had a volunteer who made it possible for 6th graders to start seeds in the greenhouse and we cooperated with a community garden nearby to have the seedlings moved outside to grow.

Monte Rio Union School

At Monte Rio Union School, approximately 85% of our students qualify for Free & Reduced Lunch. This means that the food and lessons around wellness that students receive are critical for their future well-being. Our Garden & Nutrition Program teaches nutrition through cooking, tasting, and gardening. Kindergarten-8 students are taught weekly, as well as students in After School. Students create a quarterly Garden & Nutrition newsletter, advancing skills in ELA, technology, and Common Core. We connect with local farms through CAFF.

West Boundary Elementary School

At West Boundary Elementary School our goal is to involve the students in growing food and learning about the process of growing; from soil prep to planting to care and harvest. Our school is in a rural community and we have an annual Harvest lunch in the fall for students, family and community: this year the green team harvested pumpkins from the garden and students were taught to process them. The Grades 4,5,6 & 7 classes baked pumpkin desserts for the Harvest lunch which feeds over two hundred students and community members.

Mountain Oak Charter School

We would love our school garden to produce many vegetables to be used by the students to learn to cook with and create meals. As part of our school's curriculum we teach our students farming, gardening and cooking. We have two wonderful areas for our school garden, the front area for the lower grades and the back area for our upper grades. This grant will help us a great deal in retaining and creating beautiful and abundant gardens for our entire school community!

Lafayette Elementary

Lafayette is an urban school. Every bit of green provides relief to the asphalt and an opportunity to experience gardening opportunities that are otherwise unavailable to many of these kids.
This is an ideal time to revitalize the garden because the school has finally been able to add locking fences to the area which was previously vulnerable to vandalism. The school is on a main street and the garden area has long been unsecured, making it difficult to invest our already stretched time and resources into an unlocked area.

Hillside Elementary

The goal of our garden is to incorporate different subjects within our curriculum. The garden will bring a hands on approach to teach children about farming, soils, organisms, vegetables, recycling and healthy eating. The first graders at Hillside will learn about caring for a garden beginning in the fall and continue through the spring ending with our Organism unit in science and our reading program, "Away we Grow", from Learning By Design. The garden will also be directly under our Green roof. The children will be doing lessons that also incorporate Math and Writing.

Oak View Elementary

The purpose of our grant is to educate our students on the process of growing healthy food from ground preparation to harvest. Students will prepare soil, plant seeds, water plants, pull weeds, make observations, harvest and then eat the garden foods. They will be educated on what types of foods can be grown during each season. Our students will understand the reward and value of growing one's own healthy food and the nutritional value of doing so.

Bowen Elementary School

The Gardening Committee’s goal is to teach the kids about the seed to plant to vegetable process. In many cases, it is the first time the children see where vegetables come from and how they are grown. Once in the fall and once in the spring, each of the grade levels take turns planting in the garden. Many of our gardening supplies are very old, and need to be replaced. This grant will make it possible for us to continue our Gardening Committee.

Martin Petitjean Elementary

The school garden at Martin Petitjean Elementary will serve as a useful teaching tool. When used as outdoor laboratories, this school garden will enhance students' knowledge of where food comes from, how food is grown, plant life cycles, nutrient cycles, seasons, plant and animal interactions and other useful topics that are commonly found in standardized lessons used across Louisiana.

West Zone ELC

Our goal is for this garden to enable our students to gain firsthand knowledge about their food system and healthy eating, as well as provide lessons in science, english and math. The science of ecosystems, insect and soil science, local food systems, organic agriculture, and the math of gardening (such as planting plans, yield statistics, geometry, measuring growth) are a few of the concepts we anticipate teaching through our garden.

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