North Middle School

North Middle School's Community Garden was first established as a partnership between Aurora Public Schools and the BRANCH. BRANCH is a University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus multidisciplinary student organization dedicated to becoming a sustained partner with Aurora communities by promoting, supporting, and implementing programs that encourage Aurora community members to take an active role in their own health and the health of their community.
Together, North Middle School students, families and teachers, and North's surrounding community members joined students and professors of BRANCH to establish the garden with 26 plots last year. This year, we were able to hold Youth Farmer's Markets on our school grounds beginning in late August and concluding on October 18th. Primarily, the goals of the garden include the following: developing our community; educating our families about nutrition and health; increasing availability of fresh produce to our community; engaging students in healthy activities and learning experiences related to the garden; developing garden-related curriculum across the content areas.
This grant request will enable us to continue to make improvements upon our garden and implement more of our future goals.