Ellis Youth Garden Club

Two years ago our school had a garden donated. It is a beautiful space with a tiled area for gathering and several beds. The teachers at our school were very excited the first year and very quickly lost interest when our drip system was vandalized and summer break came. The next year the garden sat virtually empty. Many of the beds were given to community gardens. I have managed to hang on to 4 garden spaces: 18x30 space and 3 3x30 spaces. Through a couple of local gardening programs, a single volunteer, and myself we have managed to design a beautiful and educational garden. Since much of this has happened during the summer months our students are not very involved, though they would like to be. During the 2012-2013 school year I will be starting an after-school gardening club. This will serve two purposes: getting students involved in the garden and providing after-school enrichment programs necessary for our population. Through the gardening club students will be engaged in science, the natural world, art, and literacy. I have included a link to the Wordpress Site we will be using to share our garden with the world. I hope this site will become a place where not only pictures and descriptions will exist, but students' writing and art work can be displayed. Food grown in our garden will be used not only in our school cafeteria, but will also be donated to a local food pantry.

Грант предоставил Boulder, CO (July 2012)