School gardens

Follow these steps to grow a garden that makes learning come alive for your students.

• Build a team — Identify key contacts to work with on this project.

• Identify goals — Gardens have many uses and forms. Work with your team to define the goals for your schoolyard garden. See this Determining Your Goals Worksheet.

• Design your garden — Create a design that engages students and meets your shared goals. See the Slow Food USA School Garden Guide for ideas to design and build the garden.

• Find funding — Develop a creative approach to secure funds and materials for your garden. See garden grant opportunities from Monarch Lab and Jeffers Foundation.

The steps above are based on Creating and Growing Edible Schoolyards from Minnesota’s Statewide Health Improvement Partnership and Starting and Maintaining a School Garden from the National Farm to School Network.

Farm to School: Curriculum — These curricula will help make learning come alive for students of all ages and in many different subjects.

For students' safety, you will want to handle, store, and prepare school garden produce safely.

MN School Garden & Farm to Cafeteria Safety — Statewide Health Improvement Partnership — Follow the guidelines in this manual to ensure food safety and prevent it from becoming a barrier to using local foods or establishing a school garden. Developed in 2013 as a resource for garden planning, harvest safety, and food safety in the cafeteria.

Produce Safety Fact Sheets and Videos — Institute of Child Nutrition — Find best practices for food safety in the garden and the classroom, including videos and activities. These two fact sheets are a must-read for anyone serving fresh produce from the garden:

• Food Safety Tips for School Gardens

• Handling Fresh Produce in Classrooms

Garden to Cafeteria (GTC) Resources — Slow Food USA — Find tips and examples for developing the necessary food safety protocols, training workshops, and partnerships to launch your own GTC program.

University of Minnesota Extension:  Connect with a SNAP-Ed educator or a Master Gardener in your region to kickstart a collaborative effort.

Minnesota Schoolyard Garden Coalition (MNSGC):  Connect with other school gardens on the MNSGC Facebook page, at the annual conference in March, or via email at mnsgcoalition@gmail.com.