At the Edible Schoolyard Project, we love and celebrate the extraordinary generosity of our community. Our community members enable our programs to thrive and grow by giving gifts of time, money, expertise, care, and enthusiasm.
We'd love you to join us! This page details how to visit or volunteer.
We welcome all visitors to our Edible Schoolyard Berkeley program. Our garden is open to the public on weekends and outside school hours (after 6:00 pm) on weekdays.
We also conduct public tours, private tours, corporate volunteer days, and press visits.
On the first Thursday of each month during the school year, we offer a free tour of the Edible Schoolyard Berkeley.
Public tours begin promptly at 9:00 am and go until 10:30 am. These public tours are a terrific opportunity to see our program in action.
Guests must register ahead of time. Select a date from the list below to register for an upcoming tour.
Please note, public tours do not occur during the months of July, August, September, and January. In April, the public tour takes place on the second Thursday, as our office is closed the previous week for the spring recess holiday.
In addition to our public tours, we do consider requests for private tours. During these tours, visitors are immersed in our garden and kitchen classrooms. A guide will share the story of how our program started and provide an in-depth explanation of our curriculum and teaching practices. Private tours last 60 minutes and include time for questions.
The Edible Schoolyard Project is committed to spreading edible education by providing resources, ideas, and inspiration to individuals and organizations. We offer private tours for a fee that is calculated using a sliding scale and depending on group size. Please click the link below to request a tour.
Our intention is to help everyone who is interested in learning about our program. If paying for a tour is a barrier to participation, please contact us at visits@edibleschoolyard.org to discuss potential accommodations.
Please note:
The Edible Schoolyard Project’s communications team schedules all press and media visits. Please note that photographs, video, and interviews of students are prohibited without proper authorization. Please submit a request online through our contact form with the following information:
Volunteers are integral to the success of our program, enriching and enlivening our daily work. Our volunteers ensure that all students have the opportunity to connect with an adult and demonstrate to our students the caring and commitment of their larger community.
Classroom volunteers at the Edible Schoolyard provide vital assistance in helping classes run smoothly and ensuring that all students have the opportunity to connect with an adult. Additionally, before or after each class volunteers aid Edible Schoolyard staff in the daily tasks of maintaining a school kitchen and one-acre organic garden.
We require that all classroom volunteers attend one volunteer training session, and participate in one regularly-scheduled garden or kitchen class throughout the semester, for a total commitment of two hours each week.
If you would like to learn more about volunteer opportunities, please contact us at info@edibleschoolyard.org.
The Edible Schoolyard always welcomes volunteers to help with independent garden work and maintenance of our one-acre organic garden.
Infrastructure experts work independently to maintain important parts of the Edible Schoolyard garden and should expect to spend at least one hour per week maintaining their designated area of the garden for an entire semester.
If you are unable to commit weekly but are typically available during school hours, we can still use your help!
Even though our garden maintenance volunteers do not work directly with students, we require all volunteers to be cleared by the Berkeley Public Schools Fund before joining us in the garden. Please attend a New Volunteer Orientation with the Berkeley Public Schools Fund before contacting us to volunteer.
The Edible Schoolyard facilitates volunteer work days for company teams of up to 30 people. Experiences include a private tour of the Edible Schoolyard, garden and kitchen centered team-building activities, and meaningful volunteer work in our one-acre organic garden.
For more information on team workdays please write visits@edibleschooolyard.org.
All volunteers will be screened according to Berkeley Public School Fund's volunteer screening policy.
