Have you heard about our in-school education programs? For the past two years, our FoodCorps service member Elena Greenberg has taught in-school classes and after-school clubs on gardening, nutrition, and cooking at Granite Mountain School.
In January of 2017, we installed a new fence and built new raised beds for the school garden.
After building a thriving school garden and utilizing this space to teach students about the importance of growing their own food, this June Elena taught a class at Granite Mountain’s summer school. Incoming 5th and 6th grade students learned from three weeks of daily lessons about gardening, composting, recycling, and cooking healthy, local meals.
Summer School students enjoy the harvest from their school garden.
End the end of summer school, on June 21st, Elena organized Granite Mountain School’s first ever Family Cooking Night. About 40 people total attended this event where both kids and adults were able to experience the joy of cooking. Families made four separate salad dishes from local produce purchased at the Prescott Farmers Market: black bean salad, rainbow veggie salad, pasta salad, and roasted beet salad. At the end of the cooking session, everyone came together to eat and enjoy a healthy meal. Granite Mountain staff are very excited to continue this tradition and plan on hosting another Family Cooking Night in the Fall.
Students enjoy a meal that they made with their families and friends
Granite Mountain teachers and staff have reached out to us, expressing their desire for a classroom space within the beautiful garden area. We took their feedback to heart, and applied for a $2,000 grant from the Whole Kids Foundation — and heard the news that we got the grant in the Spring of 2017! The entire outdoor classroom project totals $4,000, so we are asking for another $2,000 in donations. Any donation amount is welcomed and appreciated. You can find the link to our adopt a classroom page here.
In July 2017, we installed a drip irrigation system in the garden.