Garden Classrooms

Taos Waldorf School

TWS seeks funding to transform our education through the ongoing development of our 11 beautiful acres of agricultural land at the foot of Taos Mountain. This involves the expansion of our edible garden, the refinement of a curriculum weaving the garden into our student's daily education, and the promotion of healthy dietary choices. Young children may sing songs about the garden, or plant seeds, while from the same garden the upper grades learn botany, biology, commerce, and so on.

Richard Green Central Park School

Our school is a pre-K to 8th grade public school with a many bilingual students and a high poverty rate. We are located in the heart of Minneapolis, with a wonderful lawn and park space surrounding us. We would love to put this space to use for our students! The goal for our school garden would be to help educate our students (through science, social studies, and other content areas) as well as introduce our students to nutritious, fresh food.

Imperial Elementary School

The goal for our garden is to offer our special education students the opportunity to experience the gardening process from beginning (soil preparation, fertilization, seed starting) to end (plant recycling, composting, consumption). The garden will also allow for extension of other curricular focuses, such as selling garden produce to learn about commerce/ money management for Math, etc. This grant will make it possible for us to continue to build our existing garden into a functioning and sustainable food source.

Benjamin Harrison Elementary

Our garden will increase students’ knowledge about food and nutrition and provide leadership opportunities as they plan, plant, and care for the garden. This grant will allow us to build on the success of the previous year’s garden by expanding our garden space to provide more gardening opportunities to a larger number of students. Our current garden has two raised beds where three families planted and maintained summer vegetable and herb gardens. Rearranging the space and adding 10 additional beds will provide more gardening space.

Hilliard Elementary School

The goal of our garden is to provide the opportunity for our students and staff to celebrate learn how nature works and the countless ways our systems interact with each other through the structures and practices of food, health and community. Our goal is to plant and cultivate healthy foods that would supplement our school cafeteria as well as our community food kitchen. Our students will learn better ways to eat "real" and choose a healthier, safer diet.

Dr. John Winslow

The goal of our school garden in to involve the school staff, students, their families and our community by providing an opportunity for all to participate in the care of this garden over school brakes and the summer months. We plan on incorporating a school garden into an existing free area in which a butterfly garden is already located.
Our school has a varied population. Some students come from a downtown town area with very little free space to plant a garden, and some come from a less dense area with families who do have gardens and farms.

Orlando Day School

Orlando Day School and Orlando Day Nursery Association, Inc. (ODN) are located in Parramore, a local food desert with three homeless shelters and a number of weekly rental hotels used by homeless families. Most of our school age children are homeless. Their main sources for food are the 7-11 and Burger King within walking distance of our school. ODN seeks to help these children develop a love for vegetables and fresh fruit while showing them and their families that these items can be grown to supplement their diets. Our school garden is planted each fall and spring by the children.

Las Vegas Academy of the Arts

Sustainability is one of the important themes at the heart of the Advanced Placement Environmental Science curriculum. When asked how our campus could be more sustainable, my advanced placement students immediately turned to an unused courtyard located next to the science buildings on the historic Las Vegas Academy of the Arts campus. Since August, students have been diligently transforming this space into a garden. They started by planting gourds and are now inspired to do so much more.

Newark Leadership Academy

Newark Leadership Academy’s mission is to re-engage over-age and under-credited youth (ages 16-20) through programming that combines workforce training, academics, socio-emotional support, and leadership development to provide students with the necessary skills to succeed. In fall 2014, NLA staff and students collaborated to create the school’s first Garden Club in an effort to provide students with additional leadership and development opportunities, and plant and sustain a garden that would benefit the school community.

Westside High School Career Center

The 2014-15 theme for Westside Community Schools is to increase student engagement in their school. A school-garden is an excellent way to engage students. The first goal is to improve academic achievement through positive student engagement via the natural world. The science and mathematics classes will have curriculum based on the garden. The second goal is to improve student physical health and nutrition. We plan to offer cooking classes to build the necessary culinary skills to create flavorful meals using the vegetables and herbs grown in our garden.

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