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Although Rosedale Middle School is located in a rich agricultural area, many of our students have no idea of the importance our geographical area has as a food supplier for our region and the world. Many students have no idea how food is grown or gets to their local market.

Project D.I.G. is the centerpiece of the effort at Contentnea-Savannah K-8 School (CSS) to reduce the rate of childhood obesity and make students more aware of the value of good nutrition.

We would like to build on the application of the TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) in the garden. This grant would give our students hands-on experiences to reinforce learning in the classroom. We would use this grant as an after-school opportunity for enrichment and instruction.

Our garden's goal is to give our students the opportunity and responsibility to grow, maintain, harvest and enjoy their very own foods! Our students will be able to see the growth cycle, learn about garden care, cook and enjoy the produce from our school's garden.

Built in 2007, the Benjamin Brown garden is in an actively used part of the school yard beneath a tree, once a sapling, that has now grown to shade much of the area. The donated materials included untreated cedar boards, which have decomposed gradually and are now falling apart.

We plan to continue to enhance our two organic gardens and greenhouse to ensure an innovative learning environment for more than 250 special needs students and a pioneering training site for the thousands of visitors whom visit each year interested in replicating our therapeutic gardening program

Our garden classroom consists of 15 "mini" raised beds chalked full of veggies and native varietals. Participating students receive hands-on gardening instruction on a bimonthly basis from Master Gardener trainee, Becky Wolfe.

The RCS garden club, harvested its first crops in 2003 and garden activities have been integrated into core curriculum, into the after school program, the summer youth program, and the community at large, who often donate tools, perennials and seeds.

Farmers in the Playgound, located in the schoolyards of several elementary schools in the Muskoka Region of Ontario, Canada is a program that unites kids to their food!