Garden Classrooms

Farm To Child: Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona

The Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona has three programs that help with school garden programs were we: install school and organization community gardens, host a train the trainer program to create leaders and change makers in low-income schools and communities to address hunger, health and community development. We envision communities and schools in Southern Arizona as places full of life, where gardens grow an abundance of food and leadership. Where students learn by getting their hands dirty to create clean healthy communities.

Brookwood Forest Outdoor Classroom

Our vision of the garden has always been to keep it student-centered where we provide effective, challenging and engaging learning opportunities for every one of our students. As a result, everything we do in the garden or plan to do should involve students and/or be aligned with our purpose of increasing student learning and engagement. While teachers bring their classes to the garden and guide instruction, the students are the ones who are in charge of planning, planting, harvesting and basic upkeep. Students are also responsible for sharing information to the school. 

Socially Transformative (African and Indigenous Centered) Education

The program at the Graham Elementary school in Mount Vernon, NY is a garden based education program. The mission is to reconnect students to natural systems and to ritualize that connection; to bring about critical awareness in students of the disparate conditions society exists and inspire them to action - bring about change within themselves and the communities they are in. The student population is predominantly, black – African American, African and Caribbean.

Kainalu Elementary School

Beginning in 2010, Kainalu Elementary School has been a ʻĀINA partner school with the ʻĀINA In Schools Program through the Kōkua Hawaiʻi Foundation.

Pikyav Field Institute, Karuk Tribe

The Karuk Tribe’s newly launched Píkyav Field Institute provides Environmental Workforce Development, K-12 and Higher Education, Food Security and Digital Library Services in the Mid Klamath Region.  Established under the Eco-Cultural Revitalization Branch of the Karuk Tribe’s Department of Natural Resources, the institute is named after the Karuk word píkyav, which means “fix it,” referring to the Tribe’s continuing efforts to restore the earth and its creatures to harmonious balance.

The Yisrael Family Urban Farm

The Yisrael Family Urban Farm serves the “at-promise” area of South Oak Park which is home to 90,000 people, designated as a primary funding area according to the California Endowment, Building Healthy Communities Initiative, a low-moderate income area according to HUD, and Promise Zone Designation according to HUD. In this area, 17% are food insecure, 46% have been utilizing food assistance programs for over 1 year, there is a 34% Poverty Rate and an 18% Unemployment Rate (California unemploment rate 6.3%).

SFUSD CTE Agriculture Pathways (Academy SF @ McAteer and Mission High Schools)

     We are applying as a team representing the Urban Agriculture Pathways within the Career Technical Education (CTE) Dept. of the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD).  CTE academies are high-school programs that integrate students learning in school with real-world opportunities to increase student motivation and achievement.  The innovative Urban Agriculture pathways are designed as 2 year sequential courses in 11th and 12th grade, and are one of a kind in California's urban areas.

Sierra House Garden Program

The population of South Lake Tahoe consists of mainly low income families with 50 % white and 50% hispanic. At Sierra House over 60% of our students receive free or reduced lunches. In 2012 the Barton Community Health Needs Assessment for South Lake Tahoe showed that more than 1 in 3 children, ages 5-17 was overweight or obese. In response to this issue various groups within South Lake Tahoe began to work together on new ways to positively impact the health of our community.

Davis Farm to School

Founded in 2000, Davis Farm to School (DF2S) supports the Davis Joint Unified School District in their goals to provide farm and garden-based education, farm fresh foods in school meals, and to reduce solid waste through recycling and composting programs. In addition to our work with schools, we bring our message to the larger Davis community through community events and our close association with the Davis Farmers Market.

Local Food Alliance

Local Food Alliance (LFA) is a backbone organization - we coordinate and facilitate existing programs, organizations and efforts that share the goal of a resilient local food system. A key and critical component towards that end is farm to school food, not only for student health, self-esteem and performance (academic and athletic), but also for its positive impact upon community and local econonomy and the values it instills in our school children.

Pages