A total of 11 Central Oregon schools received funding to support garden projects this year. The educational program, through The Environmental Center, helps fund the infrastructure for regional school gardens, awarding over $17,500 to 11 various garden projects.
Schools that received funding, which range from elementary schools to high schools, will collectively serve over 1,350 youth in four school districts.
Recipients include Jefferson County Middle School, Madras High School, Barnes Butte Elementary School, Redmond Proficiency Academy, StepUp at Edwin Brown Education Center, Realms High School, Bend Senior High School, Bear Creek Elementary School, Miller Elementary School, Elk Meadow Elementary School and Three Rivers K-8 School.
The awarded garden projects range from small projects like mushroom growing kits to larger plans, such as constructing a new outdoor school garden. Other projects included improvements to existing outdoor gardens or spaces, garden revivals and supplies for greenhouses or classroom growing experiments.
The Environmental Center supports these projects as part of its Garden for Every School program, focusing on garden and food-based education in classrooms, cafeterias, school gardens and on field trips.
"We realized that there's only so many students that we can bring to our garden," said Denise Rowcroft, program manager at the Environmental Center. They could reach more students through working with teachers and starting or sustaining school gardens.
In addition to supporting gardens, the program provides technical assistance to schools, connects kids to healthy foods, organizes a Garden Educator Network and operates its own Learning Garden.
The program blossomed out of a national school garden movement aimed at getting more students outside in nature. At the same time, said Rowcraft, people were becoming more mindful about where their food was coming from.
"We saw food and outdoor garden classrooms as a way to connect youth to nature," said Rowcroft. Some schools see these projects as a therapeutic space for students to be able to self-regulate and feel calm. In student questionnaires provided by The Environmental Center many students used words like safe, calm and less stressed when asked how they felt in nature.
Outdoor gardens can help students in a variety of ways, like helping to demonstrate lessons in school subjects. Teachers around the country have found that garden projects can enhance learning material, said Rowcroft, relating garden projects to certain subjects in history, science, math or social-emotional learning.
These projects can also educate students on the topic of food insecurity and sustainability. "We want children to know the power of seed saving – planting a seed and knowing how to grow food so that you can provide food for yourself and your family," said Rowcroft.
Since 2017, The Environmental Center has raised and awarded over $106,000 to support local school and community organizations in garden-based efforts. The Environmental Center helps support these projects through donations from individual donors, local and regional businesses, foundations and nonprofit organizations.
In addition to the Environmental Center's school garden program, the organization also invites volunteers from the community to its on-site garden from 4-6pm on the first and third Tuesday from March through October. The happy hour gardening events are family friendly and offer beer as well as non-alcoholic beverages. The next two events are sponsored by Boneyard Beer and will take place on April 2 and 16.
"It's one of the ways that we help maintain the garden," said Rowcroft. The events serve as a great way for people to mingle while learning how to garden in Central Oregon. Community members are invited to just stop in and be a part of it.
