Acequia Madre Elementary School Garden Program

The Mission of the Acequia Madre School Garden Program is to create and sustain a beautiful school garden and nature center where children and families enjoy and learn hands-on the connections between food, health, and the environment. The School Garden serves the 180 children (5-12 yrs, grades K-6) of Acequia Madre Elementary School and their families. These services are provided during the school day, after-school, during community events and in the summer garden camp programs. The children participate in lunch or recess in the garden, class garden times, after-school garden club, summer garden camps, and community garden events.

Parents and greater community members participate in the program as volunteers: assisting or teaching garden class, doing on-going garden care, composting, office work, errands, fundraising and serving on the Garden Committee. Families participate in garden work days,  community culinary events, family nights and summer garden camps. This year Acequia Madre School was offered a lease of water rights to use the water from the Acequia Madre (of which our school is named after) to irrigate our gardens. This significant offer from our community connects our school to the history of our neighborhood and extends the reaches of our garden program to traditions dating back to the 1600's. 

We value and nurture an intergenerational collaborative community by providing a community gathering place and serving as a resource for home gardeners in the school community. The Acequia Madre Garden Program is a model and resource for other schools in this community and climate, locally and nationally.