CALEDONIA, Minn. — There is a tremendous interest in the school garden movement in Minnesota. These gardens have provided wonderful opportunities for children to learn about gardening and to see how vegetables are grown – literally where the food that they eat comes from. School gardens also provide an opportunity for teachers to bring the classroom into the great outdoors. There is a variety of curriculum available through the MN Departments of Agriculture and Education that can be used that utilize school gardens that encompass everything from mathematics and business to art, agriculture, biology and cooking classes.
Houston County Master Gardeners believe in encouraging our youth to explore the wonders of the garden. For that reason the group has decided again to offer a $500 grant to one or more school gardens in the county for this coming growing season. This grant is open to all schools as well as other youth groups (daycare, 4-H, scouts, etc.) in the county. The grant money can be utilized for materials, plants, soil, or equipment. This year we are also making the money available for education of the adults working with the garden.
We realize that to have a successful school garden you need at least one garden champion at the school. Such a champion would:
promote gardening at the school through their own enthusiasm for gardening,
be willing to utilize the garden in a classroom curriculum
encourage other staff and students to participate in garden projects at the school
This might be a teacher, a custodian, dietary staff, parent volunteer or administrator. We realize that there may likely be people out there that don’t yet know that he or she could be that champion. That is why this year we are also making our grant money available to support those would-be champions with an opportunity to attend the Minnesota School Garden Conference in early March at the Minnesota Arboretum. Up to $500 per school district can be used as they see fit for tuition, gas and/or lodging. It is hard to leave this conference without a huge amount of enthusiasm, as well as basic knowledge on how to energize your school garden.
To receive this grant prospective schools or youth groups must fill out a simple application that will be evaluated based on appropriateness and having realistic goals. It is important for our MG group – who must report our activities to our state leadership – that we receive a report of how the money was utilized and the successes or problems and also what learning has taken place. For this reason this year we will provide one half of the stipend initially when the winner(s) are announced and the other half when a report has been received from the group about how their project(s) went.
Please call Houston County Extension at 507 725 5807 for an application. Applications must be postmarked by November 1st. The award will be made in November.
— Mary Thompson, UMN Extension Master Gardener
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