Hoover Elementary School

Hoover Elementary School is one of the public schools in Oakland, CA. Working with a student population that is primarily people of color and often economically disadvantaged and oppressed, our school strives to foster strong relationships between people to prepare the whole child – all our children - for future success while promoting health and wellness in and through our garden community. Essential to our core culture, we teach and model kindness, wellness, ownership, perseverance and curiosity.

The Hoover Hawks’ Victory Garden is a growing garden oasis in the bone-dry food desert of West Oakland. We teach our students how to grow food and themselves, how to cultivate a garden and their community. While learning the practical matters of gardening – planting, watering, weeding – they are developing a new empathy for nature and our earth, our spaces and each other.

In a swiftly changing neighborhood, our garden is the place where we all learn to get along and grow strong, where we cultivate patience and people, faith and food. We are building a community because we are growing a garden where plants and people thrive.