School garden as part of food education

Organizations like the Jamie Oliver Foundation would like to see formal food education happening in schools all over the world. We are proud to say that the Foothills Learning Garden will contribute to the goal of improving food education. If you have read our formal proposal, you'll notice that the garden will be used to teach a variety of standards-based lessons, much more than food education alone. What cannot be denied is that a food garden teaches food education, whether or not that is a goal of the garden. We are glad to be making a small contribution to the improved health of future generations.

by FoodRevolution.

Whole Kids Foundation grants $2000 to the Foothills Learning Garden

The Whole Kids Foundation, whose mission is to improve children's nutrition and wellness with the goal of ending the childhood obesity epidemic, has granted $2000 toward the construction of the new Foothills Learning Garden. The Whole Kids grant application was turned in at the end of December and we were notified about our success in early May.

We are thankful that the Whole Kids Foundation and Whole Foods Market believe in the importance of supporting community projects that improve wellness in children and adults, and we are especially thankful that the Whole Kids Foundation saw the potential impact of our garden and chose to support us financially. Thank you to Whole Kids and to Whole Foods for your generous support!

Walkathon raises $4100 for the Learning Garden

The annual Foothills Walkathon, which took place in beautiful sunny weather on Friday, May 4th, raised over $4100 for the Foothills Learning Garden. Students gathered donations from friends, neighbors, and family members to contribute to building our garden. With lively music playing in the background, students spent two hours walking the field and tracking their laps.

Thanks to the PTO volunteers, teachers, staff, and students whose hard work made this year's Walkathon a success! And a huge thanks to the generous Foothills PTO for supporting the Learning Garden.

$16K and counting!

When the idea of starting a garden at Foothills came up eight months ago, it was nothing but an idea. Eventually it became a proposal. Parents and neighbors were enthusiastically supportive of it, our administration was behind it, our PTO was excited about it.

Then came the grant applications and then some fundraising. I had no idea what I was doing, really, just muddling my way through something I knew that our community and our school wanted, and trying to do it as efficiently as possible.

We are starting to see the results of some of that labor and our community is still supportive of this project. Here is where we stand today:

• At this point in our fundraising, we have approximately $16,000 raised, either pledged and coming soon or already sitting in the garden account. More posts will follow with information on where our funding has come from.
• We have approval from the city to build the garden (after some re-drawing of district and city responsibilities for the land where the garden will go). 
• We have piles of reclaimed lumber waiting to be find a new life as garden beds (we still need more decking, though). 
• We have a boy scout who would like to take on the process of building and filling the raised beds for his eagle project. 
• We have a fencing company who is ready to construct our fence.

Things are moving along. You may walk by that patch of bare land every day and wonder whether anything is actually happening, but I can assure you, we are moving.

My personal goal for this summer is to get the fence installed (approximately $7,000). I would like to have firm bids from plumbing contractors to nail down an exact price for plumbing the garden (we are expecting it to come in between $8,000 and $11,000, but are waiting on detailed requirements from the school district). I would like the school and community garden beds to be built and, if there is enough money and if we have the materials, I would like the perimeter beds to be built, too. The cost for this is expected to come in under $3,000 for soil and screws to put the beds together. We are collecting wood for the beds for free -- it will all be reclaimed lumber.

We are probably not ready (financially speaking) to plumb the garden this year, so we will have to figure out a creative temporary solution for watering the garden this fall. But, we are standing on very solid financial ground to continue fundraising and applying for grants and, if we keep moving at this pace, there should be enough money to plumb the garden next spring.

Keep checking back on the blog and expect to hear about July build days. Then, please mark your calendars and help us make this plan a reality!

Garden Birthday Parties

Collecting donations in lieu of gifts at a birthday party is a growing trend among kids today. Why not encourage your child to have a garden party and collect donations for the garden? Friends could bring something from our wish list or cash. And just think...no new toys with a million pieces to put away after the party is over, just a contribution to getting kids outside and into the garden.

In our family, my children get a choice for their birthday parties every year: invite as many friends as you want and ask them bring donations for something that is important to you or invite a few friends who are free to bring gifts.

Kids at Foothills are excited about the garden. Plant this seed in your child's head and let him choose!

Fundraising success!

Thanks to all who participated in the Grant Farms fundraiser, we've added $1227.46 to our garden fund. We brought in 16 memberships and Grant Farms generously gave us 10% of the total cost of those memberships.

Here's to local organizations giving back to their communities! Thanks, Grant Farms!