The We WILL Grow School and Community Garden Program wants you to.....

Consider the benefits of starting or expanding a garden at your school:

• Gardens give students hands-on understanding of where food comes from and the stages of growth.
• Gardens can coorespond with common core and new science standard curricula.
• Garden planning and yield estimations can supplement current math curricula.
• Vegetable and fruit planting, growth stages, management and harvest can supplement current science curricula.
• Sharing with students the value added for the food they grew to the overall school budget for meals can give them great understanding into the economic benefits of having a garden.
• Growing your own food motivates students to make healthy food choices and (in several cases especially with younger students) consume fruits and vegetables they may normally be adverse to trying!
   
• Helps nutritional services to create a seasonal menu around the harvest of the fruits and vegetables to feature the garden production into standard menu items: Ex. Fresh salad including red leafy lettuce grown in the garden.
  Please note that garden food is only a supplement to the overall menu and in most cases based on size, especially in the introductory year, would not be a replacement for the food portion of budget dollars.
• Schools will be leaders in the fresh food movement and by providing hands on education for the growing of fresh fruits and vegetables can be an incubation center for future farmers in our County.

We WILL Grow School and Community Garden program is expanding to help fund pollinator and rain gardens as learning tools.

To learn more about the program -please contact Kathy Pecora at kpecora@willcountylanduse.com  or 815-774-7906.

              

We WILL Grow School and Community Garden Program