Olivewood Gardens and Learning Center

Who We Are:

Started in February 2010, Olivewood Gardens, a 501(c) 3, is a community and garden resource facility and home to the International Community Foundation. Olivewood Gardens is a Type 1 supporting organization of the International Community Foundation. The house, gardens, and property were donated to the foundation by the Walton family in 2006 and later gifted to Olivewood Gardens in 2010.

Our staff serves our community with the help of dedicated volunteers including:

•Chefs
•Food professionals
•Master gardeners
•Scientists
•College students
•Educators
What We Do:

Olivewood’s core program offers visiting school children a curriculum of ecological, academic and culinary lessons to build scientific literacy and environmental awareness, while encouraging students and visitors to explore the interrelationships between a quality diet, sustainable agriculture and healthy living. Through garden-based education, our programs inspire children to explore connections between plants and the natural world, and the disciplines of history, science, art, literature, math, geography and nutrition. Our science based environmental education program adds hands-on, inquiry-based workshops in sustainable agriculture, water conservation, recycling and composting.

Third, Fourth, and Fifth graders from National School District visit Olivewood three times a year, giving students the chance to observe the garden’s different growing seasons as they move through the calendar year. Our field education programs are appropriate to the season and the natural happenings on the property. During each visit, students rotate through three sessions –a science lesson, a gardening activity, a nutritious cooking activity – that engage them in the full cycle of cultivating, preparing and eating fresh produce from the garden.

In the garden, students undertake a grade-appropriate sequence of standards-based science lessons.

Our life science curriculum was developed by teachers and conforms with California’s state educational requirements. Sample life science topics include Weather & Adaptation, Food Chain, Pollination, Life Cycles and Plant Biology. To extend the learning experience, we provide teachers with additional curriculum to use in their classrooms.

In our intimate demonstration kitchen, students receive cooking lessons from our chef educator or guest chefs and participate in hands-on culinary alchemy. We highlight age-appropriate, easy, wholesome recipes that feature seasonal produce from our garden. We encourage students to explore the food they sample with all their senses, and to encourage them to be adventurous eaters. In doing so, we increase their enjoyment of and knowledge about healthy foods and positively affect their attitudes and behavior toward consuming fruits and vegetables.

In addition to our core school program, Olivewood offers gardening classes, field trips, weekly tours, and weekend family days, along with meetings and luncheons for health- and sustainability-related companies and organizations. We host healthy cooking classes with UCSD’s Moores Cancer Center, a partnership born of our garden’s original purpose – providing fresh organic produce for a then three-year-old boy with leukemia and his parents, who sought to strengthen his conventional medical treatment with dietary changes.

We also offer several community initiatives throughout the year to engage and educate parents, families and other community residents. We partner with the Junior League of San Diego to offer a nutrition, cooking and fitness expo called Kids in the Kitchen that occurs 4-5 times annually. Olivewood is also one of five regional sites where San Diego County residents can take free classes to learn how to convert lawns, yards and small spaces into fruit and vegetable gardens. Other classes we offer help residents to start or maintain school and community gardens.