Piney Branch Elementary School

Almost half of the students at our school are low-income and need food assistance. Often food assistance means unhealthy processed food choices. Over the long-term this can lead to a lifetime of overweight and obese children. The changing Core Curriculum in the State of Maryland tries to improve efforts to teach nutrition and wellness in schools but still incentives are lacking. PBES believes we can offer to our students an opportunity to learn how where food comes from, how to grow food, how to harvest food and how to prepare and learn about healthy meal choices.

Over half of the students live in high-rise apartments and have never gotten to touch soil, plant a seed or water a plant. Students in grades 3-5 will get a chance to be active participants with their class to grow their own food from seed to harvest. Students will then get to prepare a meal in class to enjoy. Any extra vegetables will be allowed to go home with the student for their family to enjoy.

For the students who are extra interested in gardens, PBES has a Garden Club that meets during recess and as an after school club to help support the garden in weeding, watering, mulching, and picking up trash.

The Core Curriculum supports hands on environmental sciences beginning in 3rd grade and 4th grade and then cumulating in 5th grade with a sister project with the local farmers market to understand seasonal and local agriculture in Maryland. PBES garden would support the curriculum in having the students grow seasonal food such as lettuce for salads in the spring and a Pizza Garden in early summer and carrots and Potatoes in a cold frame in winter.

PBES Garden we believe will also assist teachers in other fields such as Math, students will learn how to make a seed tape using various size seeds and understand fractions on how to plant seeds. The garden could aid in the Art field by hosting a class in the garden to sketch. In writing, a class could be invited to sit in the garden and journal what they see, smell, hear in the garden.

PBES Gardens will be a respite from the concrete city jungle that surrounds it. Both students and families will be able to enjoy it during non-school hours. The surrounding community is very diverse, often newly arrived immigrants from a less developed country; they too will appreciate a thriving and growing garden after work