“Receiving this grant for a new school garden at Clarendon Elementary has become a launching point toward ambitious nutrition and food education plans. While it was a slow start due to a hectic first year of teaching, many stakeholders at my school combined forces to make this garden more than a reality and bigger than I could have even hoped for in the second half of the school year.

My principal has always had a secret dream and vision for a large school garden with an adjoining community garden for local families to utilize. This grant offered her the opportunity to resurface additional garden funds and connect my project to the nutrition department’s other dream of a certified school garden that could send produce to the cafeteria tables. The nutrition department even contributed a hefty sum to purchase bricks for the garden bed structures! Osborn School District’s maintenance staff has also been a major champion of this project in helping order bulk materials for building a larger sized garden than originally planned and assisting in the drip irrigation set up.

Students from my 5th grade class and after school garden club have also been a major driving force in the planning and building process of this garden! Their ideas and input have fueled the momentum of this project and have fostered their motivation and investment in caring for the garden once we add our soil and seeds.

I am so grateful for the training FoodCorps has provided me in coordination with this grant to allow me to organize and implement a new school garden in a community of high need and relevant cultural interests. It truly takes a village to grow food and accomplish a project like this. My experience with this grant at Clarendon illustrates how collaboration, cooperation, and patience are essential to success!

Thank You, FoodCorps!”

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Among the five winners are Lauren Nixon, who will be using her award to support her business startup teaching self-care to women in her hometown of Washington D.C.; funds will go toward building a mobile kitchen for her cooking demos. Alumnus Christopher Chemsak, who served in North Carolina in 2011–2012, will use his award to launch Good Seed, a podcast series about food and community.

FoodCorps’ first round of grants, awarded in the fall, have gone a long way. Recently we heard from Charles Greenlea, a 2015 Mississippi service member who won funds to support his lessons on health and food to middle and high school students, which he conducts through Habesha, a Pan-African organization cultivating youth leadership in his hometown of Atlanta. The grant provided supplies for lessons—soil, lumber, seeds, and more—as well as educational opportunities: students helped build a rainwater catchment system with the lumber and plant seeds to grow greens for tasting and demonstrations. Charles even connected with current Atlanta service member, Bang Tran, for a cooking demonstration using the greens from his classes’ garden. The extra funds helped make Charles’ classes especially memorable for participants. “Many students reported in their evaluation of the class how much they enjoyed the hands-on activities and lessons, and that this was their favorite class.” Here’s to the next group of alumni keeping kids inspired to eat healthy in schools!

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Charles Greenlea, Mississippi ’15 will be using his funds to buy supplies for teaching classes on food and health to middle and high school students in his home town of Atlanta, where he has returned to now that he’s finished his term of service.

Margolit Sands, Massachusetts ’14 is now a full-time fifth grade teacher in Arizona where she is excited to get her classroom growing their own food and integrating garden learning into her curriculum. She’ll be using the funds to engage the school community and start a garden on site just for her class.

Sarah Dixon, North Carolina and New Jersey ’14 will be using her grant to fund a garden opening and kickoff event that will engage a current service member, other local alumni, as well as FoodCorps schools and partner organizations.

Kala Cuerington, Connecticut and California ’14 will be attending the Black Urban Farmers and Growers Conference in Oakland, CA this fall. She will take what she learns at the conference to help her start meaningful conversations at her current organization around equity and race. She hopes to connect with current California service members to engage them on the topic as well.

We accept grant applications on a rolling basis for each individual cycle. If you want to apply for our upcoming round, the next deadline is December 4, 2015. Want to take advantage of this opportunity? Click here to find out more!

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