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SUSTAINING YOUR �SCHOOL GARDEN

2023 Summer Institute for Garden-based Teaching

July 12th, 2023

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SESSION OBJECTIVES

Participants will be able to understand how to leverage staff, partners, and the community to sustain their school gardens and outdoor learning program.
Participants will be able to find resources to support their school gardens and outdoor learning program.
Participants will be able to use different funding sources to create a budget for their school gardens and outdoor learning program to meet their goals.

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SESSION AGENDA

Introduction
Your Program Team
Creating Investment in your Outdoor Learning Program
Finding Funding and Resources
Work Session
Q&A

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GROUP AGREEMENTS

Attentive listening
Keep an open mind
Sharing ideas
Be an active learner
Be teachable
Take space, make space
Take care of the space you are in
Have fun!
Take care of yourself
Support each other

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“You need to know only three things to run a successful school garden:

How to cultivate people
How to cultivate plants, and
Where to go for help.”

(Guy et al., 1996)

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WHAT DO SUSTAINABLE PROGRAMS �LOOK LIKE?

American Horticultural Society’s Katherine Somerville research shows that sustainability comes from these criteria:

Budget >$1000
Diversity of products grown
Amount of products grown/harvested
Curriculum integration
Career and technical education
Specific sustainable agricultural practices

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SUSTAINABILITY IN YOUR PROGRAM

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Your Program Team

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Creating Investment

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Finding Funding & Resources

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YOUR PROGRAM TEAM

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YOUR GARDEN TEAM

Diverse team members
Building investment in outdoor learning through curriculum integration
Creating grounding documents

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Share Out: Who is on your garden team?

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YOUR GARDEN TEAM

Create a diverse program team from throughout your school and community

There should not a single person in “charge” of the garden

Managing external partnerships

Outdoor learning programs should be run together!

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TEAM MEMBERS CAN BE:

Administration
Teachers
Non-teaching staff
Community partners
Community members
Local businesses
Parents

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CURRICULUM INTEGRATION

Curriculum integration across 7+ subjects

Math (quantifying how much soil is needed for the garden)
Cooking/culinary (making seasonal dishes, cooking clubs)
Art (drawing, recycled art, signage)
Science
Career and technical education

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Turn & Talk: What is one way your school is utilizing your garden?

QUESTION: What is one way your school is utilizing your outdoor learning program?

Katherine’s research:

Curriculum integration
Career and technical education

Your outdoor learning program is cross-disciplinary and can be used in a wide array of subjects in a variety of different ways. By integrating across multiple subjects, it will continue to build school investment as more students are in the garden. Increasing buy in to increase sustainability and perception of sustainability. The garden can be used to talk about agriculture careers and technical education. It can also be used in math to talk about the amount of seeds you need for a garden bed or calculating the growing time of crops. It can be used in cooking or art or science.

PICTURE (right): an example of recycled art for beauty and as a talking piece in a school garden.

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OSSE RECOMMENDED SCHOOL PARTNER LIST

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These are just some of the community partners that work in DCPS. The link attached is the recommended school partner list. It would be a great first point to help folks if they are looking for something specific for their outdoor learning program. For example, if you wanted to work with more environmental and water issues then Anacostia Watershed Society would be a great connection for that.

What is key is working in tandem with your school partners. Both the school team and your partners work together to create the program. What can happen is that it becomes your school partner’s program and if the funding runs out for the program, then the outdoor learning program/school garden goes with them. What is the most effective is working together so everyone has an equal stake and understanding of what is happening in your program.

Great example: Brightwood, us (FONA), DC Master Gardeners, Hope Multiplied, PTA, DC Bee Keepers, it truly takes a village to run a garden!

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CREATING GROUNDING DOCUMENTS

Create grounding documents that are guides and help maintain your program

This can look like a shared drive or a binder that lives in the storage in shed

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CREATING GROUNDING DOCUMENTS

Sample Teacher Expectations Intro Presentation

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CREATING GROUNDING DOCUMENTS

Sample Garden Task Manager

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CREATING GROUNDING DOCUMENTS

Sample Planting Plan

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Sample Garden Map

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CREATING GROUNDING DOCUMENTS

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CREATING INVESTMENT �IN YOUR OUTDOOR LEARNING PROGRAM

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School investment
Community investment
Aligning programming with existing school goals and priorities
Creating goals for your outdoor learning program
Investment in tools

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CREATING INVESTMENT IN YOUR OUTDOOR LEARNING PROGRAM

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School investment

Aligning programming with existing school goals and priorities
The Benefits of School Gardens
Schoolwide events

Community investment: community organizations, neighbors, businesses, PTA

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CREATING INVESTMENT IN YOUR OUTDOOR LEARNING PROGRAM

Creating this investment from school and the community will contribute to a thriving outdoor learning program. If more people are invested, the more support you will have. The support from the top (administration and community) will create a baseline for everything else. Making sure your administration is onboard is a crucial element. The Benefits of School Gardens document can help give folks a good starting point to talking about the importance of outdoor learning programming.

Having school wide events that allow students and the community to work in the garden or use the space creates more culture and becomes apart of the school culture.

School events: potlucks in garden, salsa tasting, fall harvest fests
Community events: garden work days, garden markets

Bring in the community investment by allowing stakeholders in the garden! These links are to help with volunteer management and building community in the garden. The picture to the left is a great example of a way to bring in the community to your space.

PICTURE (left): This is a small portion of a signage project at DC Bilingual 6 or 7 years ago, where 3rd or 4th graders interviewed parents, staff, and nearby restaurants on different how different vegetables they were growing were used in different cuisines in their neighborhood and school community. They learned how to cook some of the dishes they heard about and then made signs that talked about what they learned. Not only did the students get a lot of compliments from staff, but neighbors and passersby often stopped to read the space.

�

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Creating goals for your program

Maintaining your garden year-round

Investment in tools for human sustainability

Example: Drip irrigation systems
Managing Unique Elements

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CREATING INVESTMENT IN YOUR OUTDOOR LEARNING PROGRAM

Katherine’s research points:

Diversity of products grown
Amount of products grown/harvested
Specific sustainable agricultural practices

These are all related to what Katherine’s research shows. Having clear goals and plans to reach them keeping in mind things like diversity of products grown and the amount of products leads to increased use of the space and a high perception of sustainability because you can visually see it.

Use the garden area checklist and school logic model (as shown on the next two slides) to start your planning.

The additional resources can help make a plan as it shows yearly maintenance guides, OSSE’s planting calendar, and a 6 season guide to the garden.

Additionally, to help maintain that human sustainability (since most gardens are maintained by teachers in addition to their teaching responsibilities) it is important to invest in tools that make gardening easier for example drip irrigation systems, green houses, bees, hydroponic gardens, etc. It is vital to have goals that will implement tools and procedures that make your garden more sustainable. The last link is a resource to help manage these unique elements you might want in your garden space.

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School Garden Area Checklist

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CREATING INVESTMENT IN YOUR OUTDOOR LEARNING PROGRAM

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School Logic Model Template

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CREATING INVESTMENT IN YOUR OUTDOOR LEARNING PROGRAM

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FINDING FUNDING & RESOURCES

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FINDING FUNDING & RESOURCES

The most common funding sources that support school gardens and outdoor learning programs are:

Parent-Teacher Organization (PTO) funds
School funds
School district funds
Local funds
Regional funds
Grants and foundations
Crowdfunding
In-kind donations

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CROWDFUNDING

Encourages individuals to donate
Results in smaller individual gifts to meet overall goals
Most successful when it is limited to a specific one-time need
Best paired with an online platform to share your message widely
Build buy-in from others with secured donors

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On average, campaigns raise between $3,500 and $35,000 (Crowdfunding for School Gardens, 2019)

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GRANTS & FOUNDATIONS

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Poll: Has your school applied for any grants or foundations to support your outdoor learning program?

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COMMON GRANTS AND FOUNDATIONS

RiverSmart Schools Grant: The District Department of the Environment, Watershed Protection Division offers funding and training to schools selected through this schoolyard conservation site program.
US Department of Agriculture Farm to School Grant Program: USDA awards competitive Farm to School grants to be used for training, supporting operations, planning, purchasing equipment, developing school gardens, developing partnerships and implementing farm to school programs.
Whole Kids Foundation School Garden Grant: Our Garden Grant program provides a $3,000 monetary grant to support a new or existing edible educational garden
Ben & Jerry’s Foundation: The National Grassroots Organizing Program offers one-year general operating support grants of up to $30,000 to non-profit grassroots organizations throughout the United States.�

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IN-KINDING

In-kinding refers to non-monetary donations

In-kinding Tips + Scripts

Use an In-kinding Tracker to keep track of everything
Send thank you letters! You can also just print it out and give it to them when picking up goods

Hardware Stores

Home Depot
Lowes
Ace Hardware

Grocery Stores
Bakeries

Bethesda Bagels
Au Bon Pain
Starbucks

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In-kinding is non-monetary donations. It can be getting donuts and coffee for your community work morning or getting lumber donated for raised garden beds. In-kinding can be great for events with little to no budget. On the following slides there are resources to successfully in-kind goods for events.

Tips:

Don’t be discouraged, there will be a lot of no’s!
Have a SPECIFIC ask
Local businesses > big corporations
Always ask for the name of the manager or someone in charge of donations. Get accurate contact information!
Bigger businesses tend to have more structured giving like monthly cycles where they only give once a month (Giant, Soutdoor learningway, Potbelly’s, etc.) or have corporate giving forms
Franchises can do run donations differently depending on location like Ace Hardware which is usually locally owned

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IN-KINDING

In-kinding Tips + Scripts

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In-kinding Tracker

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IN-KINDING

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Thank you Letters

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IN-KINDING

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Additional resources:

School Garden Funding Guidance for the District: OSSE’s guide to funding outdoor learning in DC
Garden Care Directory: find local resources to support the construction and ongoing care of for your program
Department of Parks and Rec Tool Share Program: DPR's Garden Tool Share Program assists resident gardeners who may require assistance with temporarily attaining garden tools for one-time use or special events by allowing residents to borrow a variety of garden tools for up to one week.�

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FINDING RESOURCES

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The average annual budget for a school garden program in the District is approximately $17,334, however, budgets vary widely between programs based on responses to the questions above and can range from $300 to $80,000 (2018 Healthy Schools Act Report, 2018)

Sample Budget

YOUR PROGRAM BUDGET

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The average annual budget for a school garden program in the District is approximately $17,334, however, budgets vary widely between programs based on responses to the questions above and can range from $300 to $80,000 (2018 Healthy Schools Act Report, 2018)

YOUR PROGRAM BUDGET

Sample Budget

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WORK SESSION

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OSSE SCHOOL GARDEN GUIDE

This guide is intended for a broad audience including teachers, school administrators, community-based organization staff, community members, and parents. It provides guidance for establishing a new school garden, maintaining an existing school garden, or using the school garden for instruction.

This guide will assist you with:

Starting a new school garden;
Maintaining an existing school garden; and
Providing high-quality garden-based instruction.

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Take 5 minutes and make a SMART goal in one of these categories. Then we’ll split into working groups to share & create an action plan focused on:

Your Garden Team
Creating Investment in your Outdoor Learning Program
Finding Funding and Resources