School and Community Colllaborations for School Gardens 3 Innovative Models to Make School Gardening Easier and More Successful

SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY COLLLABORATIONS FOR SCHOOL GARDENS 3 INNOVATIVE MODELS TO MAKE SCHOOL GARDENING EASIER AND MORE SUCCESSFUL

Through funding from a USDA Specialty Crop Block Grant administered by the Kansas Department of Agriculture, three model programs were established with the purpose of providing examples of how community collaborations and creativity can help to create a garden that not only serves as a great outdoor learning lab for students, it provides fresh fruits and vegetables for the school and broader community.

This project was coordinated by the Kansas Association for Conservation and Environmental Education (KACEE) www.kacee.org

For more information about this project, contact Ashlyn Kite-Hartwich, [email protected], (785)889-4384

More information about school gardening at www.kansasgreenschools.org/garden-gate SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY COLLLABORATIONS FOR SCHOOL GARDENS 3 INNOVATIVE MODELS TO MAKE SCHOOL GARDENING EASIER AND MORE SUCCESSFUL

ABOUT THIS PROJECT

One of our most important non-optional interactions with our environment is food. KACEE received a previous USDA Specialty Crop Block Grant to develop school garden curriculum and how-to guides (located at www.kansasgreenschools.org/garden-gate). While some schools utilized the resources to start school gardens, there was one barrier that many struggled to overcome—what do we do with the garden over the summer? Who maintains it and how do we make sure produce is utilized? With another grant from the USDA Specialty Crop Block Grant program, administered through the Kansas Department of Agriculture, we challenged schools to create collaborations that address this barrier and create a more sustainable and impactful school gardening program for their schools. In a competitive grant process, we received 10 high quality applications representing various proposed models, ultimately, an advisory team including representatives from the Kansas Farm Bureau, the Rural Center and KACEE selected three projects to provide a subgrant to implement their proposed projects. This report presents more information on the innovative collaborations and accomplishments of these projects.

Our amazing project partners in action at Erie School District, Olpe High School Complete High School Maize!

MODEL ONE: SCHOOL, EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTER AND FFA COLLABORATION

Lead Partner: Southern Lyon County FFA, led by Olpe school agriculture educator, Mandy Kern Additional Partners: Olpe Early Childhood Center, Olpe Elementary, Chamness 4-H Club, Happy Harvesters 4-H Club, Emporia Gardners of America, Lyon County Conservation District, Our Seven Acres Farm

Why this Collaboration Model Works: The Southern Lyon County FFA, like all FFA chapters provides high school students with the opportunity to learn, lead and experience in agriculture. Having FFA lead this project provides a space for students to learn agricultural principles, plant science and more with hands-on experiences in the garden, provides opportunities for leadership with both younger students at the school, 4-H and in community and meets the requirement of having a supervised agricultural experience. By working directly with the Early Childhood Center which has young students year round, this collaboration insures that there are students engaged in the garden year round, solving a key challenge of how to maintain, harvest and utilize produce during the summer months when K-12 school is not in session. Further, engaging both private producers and gardening partners provides students with critical support to make the most of their gardens and in this case, introduce new gardening techniques to extend the growing season.

Accomplishments:

 26 elementary students broke ground on the garden, learned about gardening, planted a pizza garden at the school and took home gardening tools and plants to create a small home garden of their own  FFA students constructed 9 raised beds, allowing each classroom and the early childhood program to have their own bed to garden with  FFA students taught lessons to early childhood students and assisted them in planting honey dew in their garden plot  4-H members helped with garden maintenance and planting over the summer with assistance from the early childhood students and FFA volunteers.  Afterschool Culinary Arts program harvested, prepared and shared dishes featuring fresh produce  Harvested produce was utilized in summer meals for the early childhood program and distributed to students (more than 100) for use at home with their families  High School coursework connected to career/tech education and included soil sampling, light experiments and alternative ag production experiments, including hydroponics, tower gardening and more.  Integration of rain barrels and composting to sustain the garden long term  Fruit trees and bushes planted to extend food opportunities during the school year

Contact Information:

Mandy Kern, Olpe High School, [email protected], (620)412-1725

MODEL TWO: SCHOOL, CLUB AND LOCAL PRODUCER/VENDOR COLLABORATION

Lead Partner: USD 101, Erie Schools, Superintendent, Steve Woolf Additional Partners: On the Edge Vineyard, City of Erie, 4-H, The Orange Swan (a “free” store for those in need), FFA, Stubbs Market, Erie High Program Coordinators for Family and Consumer Science, Science and Problem-Based Learning, and WILD, a school club dedicated to getting kids outside and learning outside.

Why this Collaboration Model Works: To address the challenge of the growing season with the overlay of the school year, this project planted vineyards and fruit trees that will provide opportunities during the regular school year for students to harvest and consume produce. By integrating the school garden into their problem-based learning, family and consumer science and science courses, the garden is integrated into the curriculum and becomes an invaluable resource for teaching and learning. Further, FFA and the students who participate with WILD, a program modeled after FFA to engage students in getting outdoors, learning and service, helped to plant and maintain the orchard and vineyard. Connecting to the community and community needs is an important part of this project. Collaboration with local fruit growers provides students with ongoing career and tech education and some of the grapes produced at the vineyard will be purchased by a local wine producer and locally produced fruits, both table grapes and fruit from trees and bushes will be distributed to a local grocery and a local food assistance program. This model works because it connects students with both the school curriculum and the local community, while providing ongoing funding to grow and maintain the orchard, vineyard and fruit bushes.

Accomplishments:

 Students, in consultation with an area orchard expert, 20 fruit trees (apple, cherry and pear) have been established in the school orchard and with help from a local vineyard, planted 6 100’ rows of grapes  1/3 of Erie students were engaged in planting the vineyard, orchard, and berries through classes, project based learning, FFA, and the Erie High School WILD Kansas club and 9 volunteers have donated more than 100 hours  4-H members helped with garden maintenance and planting over the summer with assistance from the early childhood students and FFA volunteers.  A school based apiary will be established and provide additional learning resources to enrich courses at Erie High  5 teachers have participated in more than 10 hours of training designed to maximize the learning opportunities

Contact Information:

Steve Woolf, USD101 Erie Schools Superintendent, [email protected], (620) 244-3264

MODEL THREE: MULTIGENERATIONAL COLLABORATION

Lead Partner: Complete High School Maize, Heidi Albin, Teacher Additional Partners: Via Christi Village Retirement Home, Pray-Woodman Elementary School and Maize Central Elementary School

Why this Collaboration Model Works: Complete High School Maize is an alternative high school that focuses heavily and on developing life skills and character education, including practicing leadership. Developing a school garden not only helps to build life skills like responsibility, cooperation, care, cooking and more, it offered a unique opportunity to create a community space around the school to engage younger students at nearby elementary schools as well as senior citizens at a nearby retirement village. This multigenerational approach uses the garden as a space where Complete High School Maize students can not only learn the nearly lost art of gardening from an older generation, but also pass on their knowledge to younger elementary students, while producing high quality produce that is consumed in classes at the school. Because the garden is designed to be handicapped accessible, this allows seniors to provide assistance in maintaining the garden over the summer.

Accomplishments:

 Students with consultation with an instructor, Via Christi and a local construction/hardware store developed a garden design that was handicap accessible, including raised beds, paved walkways and space for sitting and relaxing in the garden  Students constructed the raised beds, donated concrete work created pathways that are accessible and students amended soil, created mini-hoops to extend their growing season and planted the garden with tomatoes, peppers, spinach and more. First graders were guided by high school leaders in helping to plant in the garden. Students planted and transplanted seedlings, built compost bins, installed bat houses and more  Students had new exposures to fresh fruits and vegetables and request fresh veggies on a regular basis now, after previously reporting that they didn’t really eat many vegetables  Seniors from Via Christi visited the garden, guided by students, one senior taught students how to make salsa  20 area teachers attended professional development to learn more about integrating school gardening into their curriculum  Students learned how to amend soil to increase production and used soil blocks to grow seedlings  The school garden has become an outdoor classroom for courses including ecology, botany, math and more

Contact Information:

Heidi Albin, Complete High School Maize, [email protected], (316)722-4790