Outdoor classrooms and gardens located on school campuses are gaining in popularity as many school districts are exploring new ways to teach children about where and how food is grown.
Starting a school garden isn’t a simple and inexpensive project but the Parks & People Foundation has developed a unique program to help schools across Baltimore City green their campuses. Parks & People’s innovative Schoolyard Greening Program, a partnership with the Maryland Port Authority and Baltimore City Public School System, has removed over 16 acres of asphalt from Baltimore schools!
When a school is identified as a candidate for asphalt removal, Parks & People staff assists the school and surrounding community in designing their new schoolyard. Parks & People’s environmental education staff conducts lessons with students and teachers on why schoolyard greening is beneficial to local and Chesapeake Bay Watershed environments and helps create a vision for the future greening of the new open space.
At each school that participates in this program, Parks & People’s Community Greening staff establishes a landscape maintenance program with the students and teachers that will organize and coordinate school based maintenance for up to four years after the schoolyard installation. In Baltimore’s Hamilton neighborhood the Crop Circle community garden and Hamilton Elementary/Middle School have formed a unique partnership for the schoolyard which had .77 acres of asphalt removed in 2008. Molly Gallant, a community greening organizer with the Parks & People Foundation, knew that the Crop Circle garden was looking for space and that the school was interested in creating an outdoor learning environment. “I thought that the school and the Hamilton Crop Circle garden would make great partners and build a terrific edible schoolyard”.
School gardens need expertise and consistent garden volunteers in addition to students to keep the plots producing year after year. The Hamilton Crop Circle grows most of their produce during the summer months when school is out helping to maintain the garden and schoolyard year-round. The garden’s organic produce is sold to Hamilton-area restaurants.
Arthur Morgan, a Hamilton Crop Circle member, gladly volunteered to manage the school garden project from parking lot to garden, “it just seemed like the right thing to do.” Arthur has been coordinating and planning the new garden’s first crop. Jodie Kavanaugh, a Hamilton School science teacher, has been working with Arthur Morgan on the garden’s launch. “One of the best benefits so far is seeing such a diverse set of people getting together and brainstorming new classes, activities and projects for our students. What we once called ‘the back forty’ may end up being the most popular class yet.”
Contact:
Kari Smith
Parks & People Foundation
410-448-5663
kari.smith@parksandpeople.org
Arthur Morgan
hamiltoncropcircle@gmail.com
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