GARDEN SCHOOL FOUNDATION INC
This organization has already been registered
Someone in your organization has already registered and setup an account. would you like to join their team?Profile owner : j*****s@g********************n.o*g
Mission Statement
Garden School Foundation provides in-depth garden-based education to youth at Title I schools in Los Angeles, strengthening connections between food justice, environmental awareness, and community health. By using the full transformative potential of school gardens as teaching sites, we nurture a healthy and mindful generation of children who care for their bodies, their communities, and the earth. We currently serve ten Title I elementary schools, reaching over 3,200 students and their families each year.
About This Cause
In 2005, when a large expanse of blacktop at 24th Street Elementary was about to be resurfaced, a coalition of educators, neighbors, community organizations, and concerned citizens seized on the opportunity to transform the paved lot into a 1.5-acre garden classroom. Their goal was to use the garden to address the links between poverty, lack of access to fresh food, and academic performance. The nonprofit Garden School Foundation was formed to support these efforts. Today, as one of the largest such gardens in LAUSD, 24th Street continues to thrive and have a profound effect on students. The garden has become a treasured resource, deeply embedded in the lives of students’ families, neighbors, and like-minded people from across the city. Our unique Seed to Table curriculum of gardening and nutritional cooking classes was developed at 24th Street, was expanded to four schools in 2013, and now currently serves seven Title I schools throughout L.A. Recognizing that education, poverty, food justice, and health are deeply linked, our Seed to Table program of hands-on, garden-based education is designed to maximize the transformative potential of school gardens. We serve students from Kinder through 5th grade in a year-round program that is much more in-depth than most school garden offerings. Designed to engage a child over the entire course of six years of elementary school, our Standards-aligned lessons bring academic concepts to life through real-world, outdoor experiences. The program encourages exploration, critical thinking, and teamwork as children learn how to collaboratively grow, harvest, cook, and eat their own healthy foods, as well as how they can impact both the broader environment and their own communities. Students visit the garden during the school day every other week, alternating between science-based gardening and nutritional cooking classes. These learning experiences extend to students’ families and the surrounding community through monthly Community Garden Days and other events. At each school site, classes are led by a trained GSF Garden Educator who maintains the garden as a living laboratory, works with classroom teachers to complement their instruction, conducts outreach to the school community and broader neighborhood, coordinates garden volunteers, and facilitates extended learning opportunities, including after school clubs and weekend community garden workdays.