The Alliance launched The Community Green Access (CGA) grant in 2024 to offer financial and technical support to five local groups seeking to connect their community members to nature. In addition to supporting their projects, we offered resources, networking, peer learning, and technical skills training. Organizations leveraged these tools to make the biggest impact in their local project, ultimately leading to sustained environmental stewardship in places of greatest need across the watershed. With over 52 years of experience cultivating community partnerships, the Alliance was excited to apply our knowledge and administer results-oriented grants to support local groups and build organizational capacity where it is needed most.

The Edible Classroom, a nonprofit serving the Lancaster, Pennsylvania area, partners with schools and communities to create and sustain learning gardens where children, families, and communities engage with nutritious food from seed to table.

73% of students in the Lancaster school districts served are economically disadvantaged, and two schools are among the most underfunded in the state. 13 of 14 schools served by Edible Classroom are located in an area with very low to moderate Child Opportunity scores. These scores represent difficult access to educational, health, and social opportunities, all of which are critical for children’s well-being and success.

With funds awarded from the Alliance’s Community Green Access grant, The Edible Classroom introduced school-day lessons in the garden that reinforce classroom learning around the new PA State Standards for Science: STEELS (Science, Technology, Engineering, Environmental Literacy, and Sustainability). Students had the opportunity to participate in the seed-to-table process by amending soil, planting seeds, watering, tending, harvesting, preparing, and tasting student-grown produce right in the garden! Community members also had the opportunity to engage with the garden through ongoing volunteer opportunities and free workshops, and events.

welcome to the garden of hamilton elementary

An edible garden at Hamilton Elementary in Lancaster, PA

a fenced garden with multiple plants growing

A view from inside the edible garden at Hamilton Elementary

a person shows another a small plant

Grace Julian, Executive Director, and Sarah Ludwig, Director of Finance and Operations, share what is growing in the edible garden.

a person shows a group of children a map

Students begin their lessons in the garden by identifying where they are located on the climate map.

children look at a multicolor shed

Students at Lafayette Elementary in Lancaster, PA learn how the rain catchment in their school’s edible garden works.

a group of children plant seeds in a boxed garden

Students plant carrots in their school’s edible garden.

children water large-leaved plants in a garden

Students at the George Washington Elementary School water the purple beans (frijol violeta), learning how to care for the plants in their edible garden.

children water pink flowers in a garden

Students at Elizabeth R. Martin School water native zinnias.

children harvest potatoes from a boxed garden

Students harvest potatoes in their edible garden at Wickersham Elementary School in Lancaster, PA.

children cut potatoes at a table outdoors

Students learn how to cut and prepare their garden’s harvest.

children eat at an outdoor table

Students taste what they prepared from their school’s edible garden’s harvest.

Through this project, Edible Classroom engaged 2,918 students! They facilitated a total of 178 lessons across four elementary schools in Lancaster, PA. They also had the opportunity to train 10 garden educators and host three student interns. Through all of their work, Edible Classroom ensured thriving gardens for harvesting vegetables, both for tasting, and for sending surplus home with students.

Their hands-on lessons for students aligned with STEELS standards and had a focus on English Learners (ELS). Edible Classroom examined how people from different cultures and communities, including one’s own, interact and express their beliefs about nature. They also analyzed how living organisms, including humans, affect the environment in which they live, and how their environment affects them.

“Keyaura is becoming more comfortable around all things nature each day. She takes pride in the plants that she’s personally planted and is almost always willing to taste things straight out of the garden. Yesterday, she spotted a “bug” out of the corner of her eye that was making sounds and realized it blended right in with the mulch. It was a grasshopper and she was right; it looked just like a piece of shredded mulch. It was too close to our bed with the carrot seedlings in it for my liking. They like to mow them down! Keyaura has come to appreciate having more than just a salad made of lettuce and a couple of croutons.” – Mary, TEC Garden Educator/mentor

At the close of the Community Green Access Grant, Edible Classroom continues to facilitate their school-day lessons and is even installing bucket gardens at schools that lack green space!

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