Whitney Rea Smith is the Director of Family and Community Partnerships at Verner Center for Early Learning. Based in Asheville, Verner provides 5-star comprehensive care and education to over 300 children and their families at three centers and through a home-based Early Head Start program. Verner received a Growing Minds mini-grant this spring to purchase lumber,
The search for good food led Chef Alice Waters to France, and then back home to Berkeley, California, where she started Chez Panisse restaurant and the Edible Schoolyard. For Alice, a delicious meal does not start in the kitchen, but in the fields with good soil and caring farmers. Thanks for Readers to Eaters for donating
For our February 2021 Farm to School Educator Spotlight, we’re featuring the work of Jordan Diamond, the FEAST Program and Garden Coordinator at Lucy S. Herring Elementary School (formerly Vance) in Asheville. Jordan received a Growing Minds mini-grant last fall, which she used to purchase equipment to help transition her lessons to the virtual learning environment. In
“With vision, commitment, and some good hard work, educators and families around the globe are ripping up pavement, sowing seeds, and growing garden classrooms because they believe children need to be engaged by hands-on learning in a context that matters to them. In Teaching in Nature’s Classroom: Principles of Garden-Based Education, Nathan Larson shares a philosophy of
At an elementary school in Santa Fe, the bell rings for recess and kids fly out the door to check what’s happening in their garden. As the seasons turn, everyone has a part to play in making the garden flourish. From choosing and planting seeds in the spring to releasing butterflies in the summer to
Miss Davis’ 2012 1st grade class designs a school garden! They plant flowers and vegetables that grow all summer long with the help of teachers and community members, and are then harvested by students during the fall months.