Monroe Elementary School

Our goal is to develop our garden for outdoor education that is integrated with in-class curriculum in core subject areas. Garden education has amazing potential to address multiple subject matters. The garden will serve as a living classroom for exploring food systems, ecological principles, and sustainable practices while fostering students’ creativity, and social and emotional development.
While there is greater focus on “seed to table” nutrition, low income communities struggle to access fresh food and prevent food based illnesses. Our school is on the verge of completing a multi-phased renovation, and the plans allow for a new outdoor classroom with raised beds to be completed in January 2015. Our garden will be a place where students learn how science concepts, gardening and healthy eating can lead to healthy changes for themselves and their community.