Create Garden Classrooms at 3 Low-Income Schools

This past August, we at Jovial Concepts embarked on a mission to begin more in-school garden education programming with our Plant the Seed Project. After weighing some options, we decided that the best available school to partner with would be Eagleton Elementary in West Denver, just south of the infamous Colfax Avenue. This is important because the West Colfax Corridor is a noted food desert where families getting meals from fast food joints, convenient and dollar stores is incredibly more prevalent than your grocery store or local farmers' market. To further illustrate the need for our programming at this particular site, was the fact that more than 90% of the student population gets free or reduced lunchtime meal pricing because of family income or lack thereof. With limited local options for fresh food, we knew that we could provide exposure and furthermore a connection to their food that these deserving students otherwise wouldnt receive. 

So far, we couldn't be happier with the results of our endeavor. We have consistently offered curricula to over thirty 3rd and 4th graders of mostly hispanic backgrounds as part of our gardening enrichment program for the last four months. The garden we use to facilitate lessons already existed on the school grounds. Local community gardeners have maintained it for nearly a decade but have graciously allowed us to use their beds as a teaching resource. So far we have helped them thin carrots a few times but opportunities for hands-on involvement were limited as we are just now taking over some beds of our own. With the Spring season steadily approaching, we are looking to you to help us give these students the garden of their dreams.

The garden boxes are made out pavers which we intend to paint with the students to add to the aesthetic appeal of our garden. To ensure that we return the little ones home nearly as clean as the students were sent to us we hope to buy aprons for use will gardening. The aprons could also hold small gardening tools as we aim to create an authentic experience. Signage will also be needed to denote where specific crops are, and moreso to let everyone know what amazing work our students are doing.

We can use gardens to grow food surely. But when you put them on a schools grounds you can help to cultivate not only fruits and vegetables, but also curiosity and a healthy lifestyle.