REAL School Gardens

REAL School Gardens is a grassroots gardening program that helps children by supporting elementary school communities as they design, install and sustain outdoor classrooms (gardens). It is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, based in Fort Worth, Texas. REAL stands for the Rainwater Environmental Alliance for Learning.

Mission and Purpose

REAL School Gardens cultivates relationships with elementary school communities to create learning gardens that raise hope, spark imaginations and connect children to nature.

Programs

REAL School Gardens works with urban schools and communities in the design, installation, and sustainability of school gardens that are used for hands-on learning and to cultivate a deeper connection to nature.

In North Texas, REAL School Gardens supports 66 schools, ensuring that more than 40,000 children and over 2,300 educators have daily access to nature through school gardens. Through national partners such as the San Francisco Green Schoolyard Alliance, the organization welcomes an additional 39 school gardens, serving about 10,000 more students and 450 educators in its network of support. Its goals are to create safe outdoor spaces to engage young children, to use nature to enhance student learning, encourage family and community involvement in schools, and to create vibrant, sharing networks of educators and partners who commit to putting school gardens at the heart of urban neighborhoods.

The organization supports schools for a period of five years in all aspects of managing a school garden program. This support includes professional development for teachers (at least 12 hours annually) as well as guidance about installation topics, such as long- and short-range plans, budget issues, and construction work. The support also includes guidance about maintenance, sustainability and use.

History

• 1995 - Richard Rainwater's charitable foundation funds "The Prairie Project," where students in Flower Mound, Texas, restore a native grassland prairie by cleaning up an industrial dumpsite.

• 1996 - A diverse group of 33 teachers, principals and parents attends the Texas Society for Environmental Restoration Conference. Excited about the concept of environmental education, they continue meeting to support, encourage and learn from each other.

• 1996 - The Rainwater Charitable Foundation begins supporting school gardens in the Fort Worth, Texas area

• 2003 - Stacey Hodge, a landscape designer, leads a project to convert Sam Rosen Elementary School's asphalt courtyard in Fort Worth, Texas, into a teaching garden. Moved by the garden's impact on the children and the community, she proposes the founding of REAL School Gardens.

• 2003 - The Rainwater Charitable Foundation funds the establishment of REAL School Gardens.

• 2004 - REAL School Gardens supports eight new schools in the design, installation, maintenance and use of school gardens, growing its community to 10 schools.

• 2005 - The REAL School Gardens community expands to include 14 schools in Fort Worth, Texas and surrounding communities.

• 2007 - REAL School Gardens incorporates as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

• 2007 - Jeanne McCarty is recruited from Washington, D.C. to lead the national expansion of REAL School Gardens as its Executive Director. She previously served with the Jane Goodall Institute's Roots & Shoots program.

• 2008 - 37 schools are committed to creating and using a school garden. With their commitment comes their ongoing participation in and support of the REAL School Gardens community.

• 2008 - Nearly 200 teachers, principals and parents attend a REAL People meeting in North Texas and are inspired by California Secretary of Education Delaine Easton's speech, "A Garden In Every School."

• 2009 - REAL School Gardens website is named winner at national ADDY Awards.

• 2009 - REAL School Gardens wins Keep Texas Beautiful's Sadie Ray Graff Award for a Civic Organization Engaged in Environmental Education

• 2009 - The organization is awarded a Motorola Grant to fund a renewable energy project for children.

• 2009 - REAL School Gardens' Co-Founder and Board Member Suzanne "Suzy" Rall Peacock, passes away on October 3. Suzy's vision -- “We will change the world, one child, one community, one school garden at a time.” -- continues to be the vision of REAL School Gardens today.

Uses For School Gardens

• Teaching and learning in all subjects, from math and science to art and music, language arts, reading, writing and social studies
• Counseling students
• Community and family gatherings
• Playing in a natural setting
• Growing healthy food and learning about nutrition

References

• Fort Worth Texas Magazine-The Greening of Ft Worth 1
• Reuters 2
• U.S. Kids Magazine 3
• Children and Nature Network 4
• KTVT CBS 11-Program Helps Students Grow Their First Garden 5
• Univision-Programa Ayuda Estudiantes A Cultivar Su Primer Jardin Escolar 6
• Take-A-Walk Books-School Gardens Grow Happy Kids In Texas7

External links

• REAL School Garden's web site: http://realschoolgardens.org