Upper Elementary

In its first year, the Washington Elementary garden produced 80 pounds of food. Now an established garden with 2,000 square feet of productive space and a small greenhouse, our goal is to bring its productivity up to the level of some of our other gardens that produce 300-800 pounds of fresh food. In the process of tending and harvesting this garden, our students will learn self-sufficient and sustainable food production, eat a variety of new and different vegetables, and receive lessons in meal planning, nutrition, and food preservation.

Our goal is to establish a vibrant, productive garden on the grounds of the brand-new Chavez Elementary School. The garden will produce fresh, healthy food for our students and their families while allowing us to deliver our comprehensive Learning Gardens curriculum during our afterschool program called Enrichment Academy.

Our garden aims to increase healthy food knowledge, provide a hands-on laboratory to achieve grade level expectations, and establish school gardens as a volunteer-driven asset. In a landscape dominated by industrial agriculture, we are engaging the community in building a sustainable food system that supports local producers. Our garden is entering its third growing season and is becoming integrated into the Kate Mitchell Elementary community. We want the teachers and students to feel full ownership of the space, but many of them do not have gardening backgrounds.

The goal of our community garden at RISDeaf is to weave the garden into as many aspects of the school curriculum as we can. We want to continue to expand the integrated lessons and activities that teach the students about green, sustainable living in an urban setting. We want to teach both the sign language vocabulary and english print vocabulary that is connected with the garden in all subject areas.