Cesar Chavez Middle School
Garden Coordinator: Patrick Littleton
Total Population and Grades Served: Grades 6-8 with 566 students
Percentage of students receiving free and reduced meals: 79%
English Language Learners: 44%
When was the garden started: Resurrected the abandoned Life Lab garden that was established when the site was Alianza Elementary. I started our existing garden ~3.5 years ago, which consisted of 8 raised beds
How many staff are paid to run the garden program: Just myself and a paid high school assistant that comes to help out 6 hours a week. He was a former student at CCMS and is still highly vested in our garden program.
Where does funding come from to pay for staff in the garden: I am hired as an Enrichment Specialist through PVUSD, meaning my position utilizes Afterschool Program funding.
Who else besides paid garden staff help in the garden (master gardeners, community volunteers, ect). What role do these volunteers serve:
Last year, our garden has received help from UCSC Program in Community and Agroecology (PICA) student volunteers. They have done multiple different projects from organizing garden based nutrition activities to constructing raised beds and planting fruit trees.
In the past, we have also coordinated with CAFF to bring Wastsonville High School Agriculture students to our garden to work with CCMS students to plant fruit trees.
What grade levels visit the garden as part of planned classroom garden programs:
Grades 6-8, 3 days/ week and on Fridays 4-5th grades from Starlight, our feeder elementary school, join our Chavez afterschool garden club, iGrow for garden based lessons and activities.
How many kids visit the garden at a time during planned classroom garden program visits:
Usually from 10-15 students at a time.
How long is a planned classroom garden program visit:
Most all planned classroom garden visits take place during the afterschool program hours, 2:30-5:15.
How often does a child get to visit the garden during planned garden time per month:
Our afterschool garden club iGrow, meets 12/ month. All students are encouraged to join and participate, even if to just drop in for the day’s lesson.
What other opportunities are there for students to come in the garden outside of planned classroom garden programs (after school, recess, lunch, garden clubs, ect):
The garden is open during lunch most days, so long as I am out there. Students frequently visit to see what’s growin’ in the garden and to check the progress of something they planted in the past.
How is your garden maintained during the summer and vacation times. Are there any special programs ran in your garden outside of normal school hours:
Right now, I do most all of the maintenance at our school’s garden. During the summer, drip irrigation keeps our garden growing and wood chip mulch help keep most of the weeds at bay. We do not have any programs that are held outside of school hours.
What is the greatest success of your garden program:
One of our greatest successes is encouraging healthy eating habits and improving food security for our students. Or program offers; cooking classes 5/ wk, garden classes 3/ wk, our ‘Farmer’s Market’ held at lunch each week, and our weekly distribution of ~700 lbs. of donated produce from the Second Harvest Food Bank.
Our students come to our Farmer’s Market excited to eat on our weekly features like spicy stir-fried kale or pan roasted Brussel sprouts. Through these programs (and our past FFVP funding), our students have been exposed to a diverse array of fresh fruits and veggies, and turning “gross” veggies into something cool and popular (and quite delicious too!).
What is the greatest challenge in running your school garden program:
Thankfully our administration and staff are very supportive of our nutrition and gardening programs. And our community partners like Second Harvest Food Bank, CAFF, ALBA, and many others have also been supportive in our endeavor to improve food security and awareness.
However, at this point our biggest challenge in running our school garden program is breaking the stigma of gardening and making gardening cool – as many associate gardening to being a field worker. Knowing this, we’ve created a garden with the intention to help our youth appreciate our natural world and all the living things that work together to grow nutritious food.
If you could add one thing (physical or programmatic) to your garden where money was not a limiting factor what would it be:
A fully equipped kitchen for cooking and doing nutrition lessons with a large class (MLK, Edible School Yard - Alice Waters Style). More specifically (and simply), a kitchen sink with WARM running water.
DeLaveaga Elementary
Garden Coordinator: Jaclyn Moyer
Total Population and Grades Served: 625 students, grades K-5
Percentage of students receiving free and reduced meals: approx. 45%
Age of school: opened in 1966, so 45 years old
How many staff are paid to run the garden program: one
Where does funding come from to pay for staff in the garden: City of Santa Cruz Parcel Tax
Who else besides paid garden staff help in the garden (master gardeners, community volunteers, ect). What role do these volunteers serve: There are two very dedicated volunteers, one is a retired teacher and the other is a parent, who help to organize fundraisers and maintain the garden. There are also a few parent volunteers who come to the Life Lab with their child’s class to help supervise activities. Occasionally there have been UCSC interns who have conducted specific projects in the garden.
What grade levels visit the garden as part of planned classroom garden programs: K-5
How many kids visit the garden at a time during planned classroom garden program visits: 12-30
How long is a planned classroom garden program visit: 50 minutes for grades 3-5, 40 minutes for grades 1-2, and 30 minutes for kindergarten
How often does a child get to visit the garden during planned garden time per month: either 2 or 4 times, depending on their classroom teacher’s preference (some classes come to the garden every week as a whole class, while other teachers send half of their class every other week)
How is your garden maintained during the summer and vacation times. Are there any special programs ran in your garden outside of normal school hours: volunteers sign up to care for the garden over summer, each volunteer comes to the garden, mainly to water, on scheduled days. There is a Daisy Scouts group that occasionally utilizes the garden outside of school, they have done projects like releasing lady bugs in the garden.
What is the greatest success of your garden program: allowing all grades to regularly come to the garden as part of their scheduled week.
What is the greatest challenge in running your school garden program: finding the time to work the Life Lab program into the already packed schedule that classroom teachers have to maintain and integrating garden lessons with classroom curriculum.
If you could add one thing (physical or programmatic) to your garden where money was not a limiting factor what would it be: More garden program staff!
Carmel River School
Garden Coordinator: Maryann McCormick
Garden Website: http://www.carmelunified.org/174320722124819443/site/default.asp
Total Population and Grades Served: 525, grades K-5th
Percentage of students receiving free and reduced meals: 7%
Age of school: 56 years
When was the garden started: It’s been operating for 12 years.
How many staff are paid to run the garden program: one
Where does funding come from to pay for staff in the garden: Carmel Unified School District and the PTA
Who else besides paid garden staff help in the garden (master gardeners, community volunteers, ect). Parent volunteers and Master Gardeners. What role do these volunteers serve: So far in my short tenure, parent volunteers have participated in afterschool programs and routine maintenance. Master gardeners have participated in more skilled maintenance.
What grade levels visit the garden as part of planned classroom garden programs: Kindergarten through third grades visit the garden regularly for science classes.
How many kids visit the garden at a time during planned classroom garden program visits: Class sizes are 20 – 25.
How long is a planned classroom garden program visit: Thirty or forty minutes.
How often does a child get to visit the garden during planned garden time per month: Kinder visits once per week, first through third grades visit once per month.
What other opportunities are there for students to come in the garden outside of planned classroom garden programs (after school, recess, lunch, garden clubs, ect): The garden is open during recess and lunch three days per week.
How is your garden maintained during the summer and vacation times. Are there any special programs ran in your garden outside of normal school hours: A maintenance service maintains the garden during the summer months.
What is the greatest success of your garden program: The integration of the school garden into the science program is a key success.
What is the greatest challenge in running your school garden program: The lack of free time in the school schedule and ….slugs!
If you could add one thing (physical or programmatic) to your garden where money was not a limiting factor what would it be: a complete overhaul of the pond.