Kate Mitchell Elementary School

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 next step for the success of our garden is to give teachers the knowledge that they need to make it a part of their lesson plans. This grant will make it possible for us to provide professional development to school teachers and staff. Teachers have expressed interest in garden-based professional development that is available in our area, but we have not been able to support attendance because of lack of funding.

This program is supported by Volunteer Center of Story County.