The Garden School Foundation’s (GSF) Seed to Table program will get more grade school kids’ hands in the dirt, connecting them to where their food comes from, when it expands from one to five Los Angeles-area schools this fall. Dedicated to serving lower income communities in the region, the comprehensive program of garden-based education for elementary schools seeks to transform children’s attitudes toward fresh produce, cooking, eating and health.The opportunity to expand to five schools is exciting, however, there is a waiting list of more than twenty schools that want an opportunity to participate in the Seed to Table program, says GSF Executive Director Julia Cotts.
That’s where The Jolly Llama Company stepped in. To make sure that no child has to wait to get growing, The Jolly Llama, whose founder Scott Jacobson spent several years volunteering in the garden, is kicking off a fall fund drive with a $5,000 donation and asking the natural foods community to follow suit. For every $15,000 raised, 500 children will spend a whole year in the program, growing hundreds of varieties of fruits and vegetables, turning them into delicious seasonal recipes, and using their own sense of wonder, curiosity, and joy at the world around them to guide their learning, says Cotts.
The Seed to Table program is a year-round garden-based curriculum for K through 5th grades designed to get kids learning about the world through first-hand experiences. There are 120 Common Core and California standards-aligned lessons that incorporate concepts taught in the classroom in which children learn through the process of planting, tending, harvesting, investigating, cooking and eating plants. At the end of the program, students develop a knowledge of the natural world, life cycles, ecosystems, and adaptations.
Posted by Lauren Harrity 9/28/13
