Grow to Learn Grows Students with New York City School Garden Program

Students learn science, math and more in the Garden
Photo by Amanda Gentile

What is Grow to Learn?

Grow to Learn NYC is our Citywide School Gardens Initiative, which was launched in May 2010 as a partnership between the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City, GrowNYC, the NYC Parks Department, the NYC Department of Education, and other government and non-government organizations. Grow to Learn serves as an umbrella for school garden activities and groups across the city – providing coordination to ultimately ensure that all 1,600 NYC public schools are connected with the tools and resources needed to sustain garden programs. Our website serves as a “one-stop-shop” for school gardens with success stories; how-to guides on starting a school garden; training and professional development opportunities; funding opportunities, and more. We award mini-grants of up to $2,000 to start or expand school gardening programs, and also help schools connect with community based organizations that can help sustain the garden through programming and continuing garden education.

Grow to Learn will be only as successful as the sum of all partners, and encompasses the Garden to School Café program at the NYC Department of Education; and free technical and materials assistance from GreenThumb, a division of the NYC Parks Department. By working with a broad base of partners we are better able to ensure that all schools have access to the resources needed to grow and sustain a garden.

What's been the greatest challenge of managing Grow to Learn?

I think like all non-profits we are always trying to do more with less, and it’s a challenge to balance piloting new projects and ideas while maintaining and improving current efforts. We regularly reevaluate strategies to ensure we are utilizing staff resources effectively and efficiently.

What do you think has been Grow to Learn’s greatest achievement or success to date?

We are very proud of the 121 school gardens who have registered with Grow to Learn since we launched an online registry in January 2011. Developing a school garden program is hard work, and most are led by dedicated teachers and parents who volunteer their already-limited time. It’s a mini-celebration every time another school registers their garden! Of our 121 registered schools, 28% are located in communities experiencing the highest rates of diet-related illness; 50 schools participated in Garden to School Café to bring garden produce into their cafeterias; 37 schools received 300 cubic yards of free soil, compost, and mulch from GreenThumb; and 65 schools were awarded mini-grants totaling almost $100,000. We have accomplished a lot in a short period of time thanks to a collaboration with many wonderful partners, teachers, administrators, parents and school gardeners across the city.

A student gets a taste from the garden during this cooking demonstration.
Photo by Amanda Gentile

 What does Grow to Learn hope to accomplish?

Our broad vision is a garden for every NYC public school, and with 1,600 public and charter schools in NYC, we have no shortage of work to keep us busy for the next five to ten years! Our near-term goal is to annually retain at least 75% of our registered schools, and to grow the number of registered schools by 25 each year. By the third year of our program, I think we will be in a position to ramp-up our goal for increasing annual registration. School gardens require community support and access to garden education, so an important component to realizing our goals is to continue to create a framework for increased collaboration across large and small greening groups to ensure resources are used most effectively to support the greatest number of school gardens.

Of course, our goal is not simply growing gardens; gardens are people, so we are really trying to grow people. We hope students exposed to school gardens will connect with nature and form a sense of environmental stewardship; enjoy a living classroom for learning math, science, art and literature; and develop more positive eating behaviors. School gardens alone are not going to solve childhood obesity and environmental degradation, but we believe teachings kids and communities about how the food we eat impacts our bodies, planet and farmers is certainly an important piece of a complex solution.

How can people get involved in or support Grow to Learn?

The best way to get involved with Grow to Learn is to help start a school garden in your community or make a donation so that more gardens can get off the ground!

Visit our website (www.growtolearn.org) to:

• Find “5 Steps to Get You Growing” your own school garden
• Sign up for our monthly newsletter to read about featured school gardens
• Like us on Facebook to share your ideas for school gardening
• Join us as a partner organization
• Donate to, or sponsor, Grow to Learn to keep school gardens growing!

Getting outside to water the garden, students get exercise during the school day.
Photo by Amanda Gentile