Garden to Table program receives curriculum grant, partnering with BVSD schools
Aug. 14—When Lafayette's Escuela Bilingüe Pioneer fourth graders start school, they'll be tasked with pulling the carrots in a big patch growing in a raised bed in their school garden.
They'll be making room for another project, which requires third graders to collect radish seeds from the seed pods left to develop in different raised bed. After examining the structures of the seed pods and the plants, the third graders will plant the radish seeds, tend the plants and harvest the radishes about five weeks later.
The new "seed to seed" radish lesson — and the logistics of scheduling planting and harvesting — is provided by Garden to Table, an organization that helps Boulder Valley schools make better use of their gardens.
"They can witness the entire life cycle and try a radish," said Lindsey LeCuyer, Garden to Table program director. "It's amazing what kids will eat in a garden that they would never try at home."
Thanks to a grant, Garden to Table will continue this school year to develop and pilot new lessons, with a goal of introducing more culturally relevant lessons that also get students out in gardens more often and complement what teachers are already teaching.
The Garden to Table program recently received a two-year, $48,000 Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm to School grant to work on updating curriculum with the help of up to five Boulder Valley elementary schools with a high percentage of low-income students. The grant includes money for a garden educator and curriculum writer position, as well as stipends for educators at the elementary schools.
A second grant, from the Boulder County Sustainable Food and Agriculture Fund, is paying for garden lessons for teachers and volunteers. For teachers, the lessons earn professional development credit or a stipend.
"We want to provide teachers with ideas so they have more opportunities to use the gardens on their own as an outdoor classroom," said interim Executive Director Lisa Atallah.
Altogether, Garden to Table offers on-site school gardens and curriculum to 17 Boulder Valley elementary schools.
For a small fee, the organization provides weekly garden checkups from a staff member, teacher training, grade level lessons that connect to state standards, supplies and worksheets, irrigation systems, garden task schedules, and seeds and plant starts. The fee is waived for high-needs schools.
"One of the most important pieces we provide is planning and scheduling so every single grade level can have time in the garden," LeCuyer said. "There are all these little pieces that need to fall in to place so every kid can have a meaningful task."
Last school year, for example, Garden to Table piloted lessons for fifth graders on how to prepare garden beds for winter, including cutting down and composting plants, mulching the beds and planting cover crops. The garden work connected to a science unit on composting.
"They get to really experience good, hard work in their own school garden," LeCuyer said.
As students return to school next week, schools will decide what to do with the summer produce. Some will organize a farmer's market as a fundraiser, some will donate the veggies to a food bank and some will send the produce home with students. And in the spring, second graders harvest the lettuce that's added to the school's salad bar as part of a lunch "rainbow day" in partnership with the school district's School Food Project.
LeCuyer said the program's efforts include updating lessons to make sure they align with the district's elementary curriculum at each grade level.
"Teachers have so much to fit into the academic year, especially in science and social studies," she said. "We're committed to improving that alignment. The hope is for a curriculum that's much more integrated so classes are coming out to the garden multiple times a season."
