Evanston school garden links

school gardening and nutrition links

GRANTS

KEB has a grant for school gardening
2010 Mantis Awards for Community and Youth Gardens (award is a piece of equipment - tiller/cultivator) - due date March 1
Captain Planet Foundation - given quarterly; due dates last day of each quarter
imagination grant proposal (PDF) for "teachers at Evanston Public Schools that have, or plan to start garden projects that involve K-5 students" from the Evanston Community Foundation.

GARDEN DEVELOPMENT - SUPPLIERS and PROVIDERS

A and L Great Lakes Labs, provides soil testing. Concerned about lead? Read the University of Minnesota's Lead in the Home Garden and Urban Soil Environment

Buy the Yard - 2215 Main St, they have topsoil, mulch, gravel, etc.
Lake Street Landscape Supply - 1810 W. Lake, Chicago they offer a discount on purchases for school gardens

NUTRITION

Many are concerned about the quality of food in school lunches. The Healthy Schools Campaign is publicizing an effort by lawmakers in Washington called the Childrens Fruit and Vegetable Act

Nurture is a local organization doing amazing work in supporting families in eating more healthily. You can also sign up for their free email newsletter, Healthy Kids Idea Exchange

school gardens provide education. What about obtaining fresh produce? Illinois Farm Direct provides a directory of farmers markets, Goodness Greeness is a midwest supplier of organic produce with lots of organic food information on their site. Family Farmed has a mission to expand the production, marketing and distribution of locally grown and responsibly produced food

PUBLICITY

Publicize your events and get photos in the paper by signing up for Triblocal: http://www.triblocal.com/Evanston/ and don't forget these local news sources which allow you to post your school activities and events: EvanstonNow: http://www.evanstonnow.com/
Evanston Roundtable: http://evanstonroundtable.com/main.asp?SectionID=25&TM=10666.4

OTHER GARDEN GROUPS

Seven Generations Ahead in Oak Park. They had the first farm-to-school program in the Chicago area in 2000

Slow Food Chicago "an educational non-profit with the goal of creating a world in which everyone can enjoy food that is good, clean and fair. Slow Food represents a growing national movement including over 3,000 supporters in the Chicago area."

The Chicago Botanic Garden has an information packed School Gardening page

Keep Evanston Beautiful is behind the Earth Box initiative that has given the school gardens a real boost. Here is the page that details the program. Also, KEB is handling the seedling order forms for Anton's Greenhouse for 2010. Download the order form, print it, fill it out and mail it in.

The Kingsley School garden was made possible by the Talking Farm "Its vision includes both a physical space to grow food for sale to the community, as well as the educational and knowledge-sharing activities that emerge from the operations of an urban, organic farm..."

organic school icon The OSP mission is to combat childhood obesity and related health epidemics through the Grow Teach Feed model, laying the foundation for urban youth to build sustainable lifestyles.

Think school gardens are something new? They've been around since 1879. The Library of Congress has the story.

Oakton school has a rain garden in their master plan. Here is a video of how a rain garden is made, done at an elementary school in Madison Wisconsin.