Join us for a week-long virtual workshop series to get your garden project started!

This series, comprised of four interactive virtual gardening, runs from Tuesday June 1st - Friday June 4th, and it will feature a different gardening workshop each day from 4pm-5pm (ET).

You can choose which workshops to tune into (or join us for them all!):

Tuesday 6/1: Garden Basics!

Wed 6/2: Soil Health and Compost

Thursday 6/3: Increasing Garden Production (Outdoor Growing)

Friday 6/4: Indoor Gardening Ideas

This event is great for first-time gardeners, experienced gardeners who want a refresher, indoor apartment gardeners, backyard gardeners, school gardeners, and more! Each workshop is around 45 minutes long with an audience Q&A at the end.

Here's the link to register.

A Zoom link will be emailed to attendees.

If you have questions, email schoolgardens@kkqja.com

Can't make the sessions? Recordings and follow up materials will be posted on grownycdistancelearning.org after each session.

NYC DOE K-12 public and charter schools can apply for the bg视讯 Mini Grant! Eligible schools can apply for $500-$2000 in credit to a garden supply store to build or expand school gardens and outdoor learning spaces. The deadline to submit an application is February 15th, 2021 at 11:59pm(ET). To apply and learn more, visit grownycgrant.paperform.com

Here are a few resources that may help with your application:

Grant Writing Workshop: We are hosting a virtual Grant Writing Workshop on January 27th, 2021 at 4pm ET. RSVP on eventbrite. The workshop is not required, but is highly suggested, especially since our grant is different this year from previous years.

Grant FAQs: read about eligibility requirements, changes from past grant cycles, and more. If you have additional questions, email us at schoolgardens@kkqja.com 

Outdoor Learning Toolkit: This guide developed by bg视讯 and the National Wildlife Federation is meant to help schools in the planning and implementation of outdoor learning spaces in NYC. It can be a helpful resource as you plan your grant proposal.

Sample Application: Use this template to prepare your answers with your school committee. We recommend copy and pasting the questions into a word document or google doc. Before applying, you will also need to prepare the required documents to attach: a map of the proposed garden/outdoor learning space, a signed Principal's letter of approval, and a detailed budget spreadsheet.

Grant Application: Must be completed in one sitting. Make sure you have prepared your responses and required documents beforehand. Only one application per school - duplicate applications will be disqualified. Co-located schools can apply separately.

bg视讯's Food, Waste, and Climate Virtual Workshop Series: Part One 10/16

Celebrate World Food Day with us this Friday, October 16, by learning what you can do to support a sustainable food system. We'll explore what makes a food system sustainable and why it is so important for our own food security and the health of our planet.

This virtual workshop is the first in bg视讯's Food, Waste, and Climate series.  Here's the link to register.

How we grow, distribute, and dispose of our food has an impact on the health of the planet. bg视讯's Food, Waste and Climate is a three-part series that explores the intersection of food and waste with the fight against the climate crisis.

This series is recommended for middle and high school students and educators. Participants who register as a teacher will be provided access to a google classroom with additional extension materials, discussion questions, and an exit slip that can be shared with students.

Can't make the scheduled times? Choose a time and register for the Recording and Google Classroom ticket and we will send the materials to you the week following the event. (No need to register for both if you are attending the live virtual event as all participants will receive follow up materials.)

Here's a link to more information about the series.

In a moment where New Yorkers have turned to parks and gardening to ease the mental and emotional strain the Covid-19 pandemic has taken on residents, when the need for education surrounding nutrition and health couldn’t be more critical, the same nonprofits that make green space and nutrition education possible are in danger of going under, while vital city agencies like the New York City Parks Department’s GreenThumb program are facing severe budget cuts.

To date, bg视讯 School Gardens’ program has helped create 824 school gardens, the most in the nation, with a goal of having every New York City school have a garden of its own.

Following the Great Recession in 2010, the School Garden program was founded in partnership with bg视讯, GreenThumb, and the Department of Education to create sustainable learning gardens in public schools. Since inception, the program has led over 400 free gardening workshops, hosted annual giveaways for seeds, soil, plants, lumber, and tools, and funded 650 yearly mini grants to make school gardens accessible.

The gardens come in a range of shapes and sizes. From pollinator gardens in outdoor raised beds to indoor hydroponics labs producing 25,000 pounds of greens, all share the goals of connecting kids with the natural world, inspiring healthy eating, and building community.

The end of the fiscal year is looming, and nonprofits like bg视讯 School Gardens face a reckoning. Because of government budget cuts, many are letting staff go and slashing program offerings just when the pandemic has generated an all-time high in gardening interest. In early June, bg视讯’s Beginner Gardener Intensive, a free week of virtual gardening classes, drew over 1300 participants.

In New York City, access to school gardens is not equal. Green space is limited. Lack of resources, garden knowledge, support, funding, and community involvement are the primary reasons school gardens fail. Schools in socially affluent neighborhoods often have active PTAs to support maintenance and fundraising, while schools in lower socioeconomic areas often do not. These factors, coupled with the environmental challenges of growing in New York--rats, contamination, legal obstacles to obtain growing spaces-- make non-profit partners essential.

This is especially true for schools in underserved communities.

If we look at communities disproportionately impacted by Covid-19, they have the following in common: all are located in low socioeconomic areas with the least access to green space and the highest rate of diet-related diseases, primarily impacting people of color.

And yet the possibilities for gardens to flatten the curve in inequality are endless. In Corona, Queens, the garden at PS 14 was built in a concrete schoolyard after a science teacher, Bianca Biblioni, attended a Raised Bed Building workshop and picked up tools and seedlings from bg视讯 giveaway events outside of school hours. The garden is used for outdoor yoga, as a performance space for band and violin, and to teach culturally responsive-sustaining STEAM: Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Mathematics.

For Bianca, the garden has been pivotal in engaging students with disabilities and English Language Learners because her students can observe concepts that are difficult to grasp in textbooks. Through the garden, Bianca introduces the ways in which plants are used across cultural diasporas from the Huichol people of Mexico to the Ashanti people of West Africa. They have also grown corn, beans, and squash, known as the “Three Sisters” in Native American culture, to learn about Lenape companion planting.

And last year, after the tragic passing of a student, classmates grew lavender, lemon balm, and mint for the school’s crisis center, where scent was used to soothe grieving students.

Without support from community partners, Bianca says the garden would not exist for her Title One school.

“I’m not sure how we would fund the garden, let alone train future teachers as garden leaders without partners like bg视讯...Our kids would miss opportunities to connect our garden to the wider world.” Before Covid-19, nutrition education programs were already lacking in forty four percent of all elementary schools citywide according to A Is For Apple, a study of nutrition education programming conducted by Teachers College in March 2018.

Cutting garden programs erases years of work by dedicated volunteers like Bianca, making it disproportionately harder for under-resourced schools to receive the free materials they rely on to keep gardens growing, furthering the gap in education inequality. It is vital that our elected leaders, foundations, and individuals invest in these outdoor learning labs and nutrition education programs now more than ever. The health and wellbeing of our city’s children depends on it.

Author: Kristin Fields is the Director of bg视讯’s School Gardens program, a former high school English teacher, and the author of two novels. All opinions are her own.

Volunteers are a major source of strength for nonprofits and bg视讯 is fortunate to have the time, effort and talents of so many dedicated New Yorkers. Whether they are corporate groups giving back to the community by helping with a garden build for a neighborhood or school or a single individual who feels passionate about what bg视讯 does, we are extremely grateful.  Want to volunteer with bg视讯?

Jonathan Kong started volunteering with bg视讯 in 2014, quickly establishing himself as a tireless worker and enthusiastic supporter of all things bg视讯.  But in 2016, Jonathan has taken things to a new level: Creating and undertaking The Greenmarket Challenge: a quest to volunteer at all 54 Greenmarket farmers markets in 1 year.  

We spoke with Jonathan what inspires him, which Greenmarket is his favorite, and much more:
 

How long have you been volunteering with bg视讯?

This is my third year.

What is it about bg视讯 that inspires you to work with us?

I really like the environment, working outdoors, getting to interact with the public, doing hands-on activities such as the cooking demos, and learning something new about myself everyday.

Favorite activity when volunteering?

Cooking demos are always fun to do because I get to see the actual ingredients I'm using and use them with the recipe. Outreach is great since I get to see the diversity of people who live in different neighborhoods.

How many different Greenmarket locations have you volunteered at?

So far about 30, but I plan to volunteer at all of them by the end of this year.

Do you have a favorite Greenmarket?

I like Union Square a lot because there's a lot of different activities going on down there and it's really easy to get to. I also have favorite markets for each region: Forest Hills for Queens, Columbia for Upper Manhattan, Tompkins for Lower Manhattan, Fort Greene for Brooklyn, and Parkchester for Bronx.

Favorite fruit and/or vegetable?

I tend to go for tropical fruits like mangos, pineapples and coconuts, but they don't sell them at the markets.

What would you tell someone who was considering volunteering with bg视讯?

Volunteering with bg视讯 will help you improve your social skills, build confidence in yourself, and feel comfortable working with other people.                                                                                                                         

The Recycling Champions Program is singing praises to MS 443K New Voices School of Academic & Creative Arts students. The New Voices Green Team hosted a recycling and compost assembly program as part of their 1st organics collection and recycling program in the cafeteria. Later that day all 537 students created only 2 small bags of trash during lunch; everything else was recycled and composted!

Created by the NV Green Team students and Amy Musick, Chorus Teacher and Sustainability Coordinator, thier lively presentation incorporated video, music and live performance. And the results speak for themselves!

Cafeteria Composting/Recycling start date: 2/26/2016
BEFORE: 7 Mixed Trash Cans distributed throughout the cafeteria
AFTER: Compost/Bucket/Tray Stacker Station, plus a Green Bin/Blue Bin

bg视讯 is proud to announce the publication of Green Design for Students, a manual of all of the major environmental and infrastructure issues that impact our daily lives, such as energy consumption, water treatment, agriculture, waste management, and sustainable construction, written specifically for Grades 7-12.

Green Design for Students was created and overseen by bg视讯's Director of Environmental Education, Mike Zamm, who has over 45 years of experience in NYC schools designing and teaching topics related to the environment and sustainability. . The manual is designed to augment the common core curriculum and provide exposure to critical real-world issues that are frequently overlooked in a standard lesson plan.

We encourage teachers to use and share the Green Design manual and help educate future generations about these pressing issues.

Please view the embedded manual below or save the PDF for future use.

Grow to Learn celebrated the end of the 2013-14 school year with a tour of four school gardens in Harlem and the Bronx. Since launching in February 2011, 438 schools have joined Grow to Learn, making them eligible for garden grant funding, training and materials offered by Grow to Learn partners bg视讯, NYC Parks Department’s GreenThumb Division and NYC Department of Education’s Office of SchoolFood. Join us on this virtual tour of some dynamic school gardening programs:

Stepping into the hydroponics classroom at PS 208m The Alain L. Locke Magnet School for Environmental Stewardship, several fifth graders sat huddled over small tanks in front of them.  They were adjusting and observing the miniature hydroponics systems they had designed and built themselves.  Behind them stood the rows of basil, rainbow chard, and lettuce they’d been tending in the larger classroom system that served as their model. 

The class, taught by hydroponics teacher Tina Wong, begins with the history and basics of hydroponics, includes lots of planting and harvesting (each student tends to one plant, and picks what they get to grow), and ends with a STEM-infused experimental design unit.  Next year, students will test their know-how against the elements by expanding their garden – for the first time – outdoors.  With the help of City Year and Grow to Learn staff, PS 208 built an outdoor garden area with raised beds in cheerful shades of purple, yellow, red, and blue.  During the coming school year, students will run a small farmers’ market as part of their class, learning economics and business principles as they garden.

Ask the students at Family Life Academy Charter School, the next stop on our tour, if they know a good place to get local produce, and they might just tell you their roof.  During our visit, FLACS students could be spotted pulling young carrots straight from the ground, lining up at the hose for a quick rinse, and munching away.  Between bites, students shared a variety of facts they’d learned researching different crops in the garden (originally, students had been asked to create labels for crops, but got so excited they would up making a fact-packed laminated brochure for every plant in the garden). 

The school’s chef, Chef Bennett, looked on proudly.  He uses garden produce (especially herbs) in the school’s cafeteria, and uses the garden as a way to make healthy eating more appetizing, exciting, and understandable to the students that pass through his lunchroom.  We were lucky enough to stay for lunch, and enjoyed a fresh salad bar, roasted cauliflower, and other healthy treats!

At Bronx Lighthouse College Prep Academy, students spoke eloquently about the hard work and long hours they’d contributed to the garden.  They shared their different roles (from seed-purchaser to resident photographer), their garden struggles (a four-flight bucket brigade to bring soil to their terrace garden came to mind), and the rewards of all their hard work – like pesto from garden-grown basil served in the cafeteria.  Currently in their second season, the Bronx Lighthouse College Prep Academy gardeners felt more seasoned, and expected to produce over 400 tomatoes – a bumper crop compared to the four they said they harvested last year!

We ended the day with a sweet surprise at PS 154x Jonathan D. Hyatt: members of the Chicken and Garden Club greeted us at the garden gate with a bucket of freshly picked raspberries.  Older students, about to graduate, showed up-and-coming Garden Club students the ropes: from watering, to weeding, to eating radishes straight from the ground.  Most exciting, though, was the run on the far side of the building where “The Ladies” live.  Four hens (Storm, CoCo, Tami, and Diva) live and roost in a coop and run abutting Alexander Avenue, and are a constant source of curiosity and delight for teachers, students, neighborhood residents, and passersby.

bg视讯's Environmental Education program engages New York City school children across the five boroughs with curriculum on renewable energy, habitat restoration, water health, and green design.

One of our office's most successful interdisciplinary activities has been building solar ovens from used pizza boxes. The project is both fun and educational and is for kids from upper elementary school through high school. Our lesson plan, available for free download below, guides teachers and youth leaders through the process of introducing key Earth Science concepts to their students while they engage youth in building working pizza box solar ovens.

Download a PDF of our 11-page unit Solar Ovens and Earth Science.

This spring, bg视讯’s Recycling Champions Program held a recycling contest amongst schools in the program to see which school could achieve the highest recycling rates. 22 schools participated in the six-week long "Big Lift"– where schools once weekly weighed the recycling and trash from classrooms, offices, and the cafeteria. With an overall recycling rate of 54%, P.S. 154 in Queens was the grand prize winner! P.S. 154 increased their recycling rate by 268% and reduced the amount of trash by 46%. Other top winners include: P.S. 29 Brooklyn and the High School for Law and Public Service in Manhattan which improved recycling rates by 146% and 88% respectively. P.S. 25 Bronx had a 47% overall recycling rate – 20% for metal, plastic, and cartons.

As a result of their outstanding recycling rate, P.S. 154Q won a school greening package valued at $2,000! The prize included tree mulching, park benches made from recycled plastic and a new school garden. On June 25, students and faculty worked alongside staff from bg视讯 to construct the school garden and assist with tree mulching. For many students, it was their first experience with hands-on landscaping and gardening. Students filled the bed with top soil and planted a number of perennials and herbs that will attract butterflies. In addition to beautifying the school, the 8' x 3' raised bed constructed from recycled lumber, will serve as a valuable educational tool for students to learn about the natural environment.