Garden Classrooms

This school garden program engages Holyoke high school students at the Paulo Freire Social Justice Charter School in hands on food systems education. True to the values of the school's namesake, Paulo Freire, garden educators strive to integrate social justice into all parts of the curriculum. School gardeners grow crops valued by latino communities in Holyoke, such as gandules and aji dulce. Also, students participate in school food research and improvement projects. 

Students help with garden maintenance while tasting foods grown in the garden. The garden is also an integral part of the science curriculum at ELES.

The Timbuktu Community Garden aims to transform students into "food warriors."

In-classroom and after-school lessons are facilitated by FoodCorps and the Yavapai County -Community Health Services Department. Garden education is intermixed with nutrition education and presented in a fun, engaging, hands-on way. We support quarterly school-wide taste-tests of local produce as well as healthy eating at school-wide events, such as bake sales. Currently, we work every week with K-2 grade in after-school garden club as well as 2nd grade in-classroom gardening and nutrition lessons twice per month.