kids-grow.org 

The purpose of a school garden is to help restore the relationship between the earth and students.  Most youngsters have no idea how the food that they eat grows, nor what it takes. Growing food takes time and dedication, the opposite of what we are used to in our instant-gratification technological world  of electronic entertainment and drive-through lunches.

Growing our own food helps us realize that our most basic need--food--requires much more than technology can provide. Growing our own food not only connects us to the earth and keeps us healthy, it also helps us develop life skills:

PATIENCE: to wait from sowing till harvest

CARE: to weed the crops

EMPATHY: to care for a baby lettuce plant

JOY: to watch a flower unfold

SATISFACTION: to help something grow

COOPERATION: to work together

PLANNING: to calculate needs

LEADERSHIP: to be in charge

SERVICE: to prepare school-grown-meals

A school garden is a living text book and an outdoor classroom where school subjects are learned and applied:

MATH: to measure and calculate

EARTH SCIENCE: to learn about soil

BOTANY: to realize that a cucumber was once a flower

GENETICS: to cross pea plants just like Mendel did

LINGUISTICS: to break down the Latin names of organisms to their root words

ECOLOGY: to interplant crops and thus lower the insect damage

NUTRITION: to prepare the harvested food in the school cafeteria

ECONOMICS: to sell food at the school’s farmer’s market and calculate the profit or loss

CHEMISTRY: to understand the nutrient cycles from decomposition processes

PHYSICAL EDUCATION: to work different muscle groups

MUSIC: to sing together during weeding

POETRY: to observe Nature and find inspiration

HISTORY: to understand the revolution from an agrarian lifestyle to an industrial one

CIVIL RIGHTS: to understand the plight of migrant farm workers & the works of people like Cesar Chavez

A school garden and farm is a living text book that teaches the students how all life is interconnected and how we are all part of the cycles of life.

 kids-grow.org

  our non-profit   

 vision statement

At Kids Grow we envision feeding our children’s hunger for beauty, for understanding, for taking action and for meaningful activity, for community, and for making a difference in the world.  Our aims are to provide a fertile field for this growth, to nurture our children in their development as young adults, to tend to their education through work in the garden, on the stage, in the studio, at the writing desk, and in the marketplace, and to see these capacities blossom in each individual.

Read more about us in About Us  

Students' Perspectives