Green Thumbs Growing Kids runs school food garden programs in Toronto to empower children and youth to grow and prepare fresh foods. Their vision is to establish healthy learning gardens in every school. They work with 20 schools, providing curriculum-focused gardening programs from September to June where produce is used in the lunchroom or classrooms. In the summer, they offer day camps and youth programs and surplus produce is donated. The programs are run by paid staff and volunteers, and engage students through activities like composting, harvesting, arts projects, and an annual School Garden Day celebration.

1. Say Yes! To School Food GardensSay Yes! To School Food Gardens
Feb. 18/2015
Ontario Edible Education Network Webinar

2. Green Thumbs Growing Kids
Sunday Harrison,
Founder and Program Director at Green
Thumbs Growing Kids
Collaborator in the Imagine a Garden in
Every School campaign
Contact:
Sunday@kidsgrowing.ca
416-876-1480
Web:
www.kidsgrowing.ca
http://agardenineveryschool.ca

3. Our vision:
Healthy Communities and
Learning Gardens
Everywhere!
Our Mission:
To empower urban
children, youth and
families to learn about,
grow and prepare fresh
foods, cultivated in an
environmentally
sustainable manner,
in hands-on programs

4. timeline
ALSO:
•Monthly garden education workdays for volunteers
•Partners at new Regent Park greenhouse (nearly completed)
•2015 starting social enterprise, youth gardening for wages

5. School-Community garden model
Curriculum-
focused
from Sept-
June.
Produce
goes to
lunchroom/
classrooms
All-ages engagement in summer (day camps, youth
groups, youth jobs, family drop-in evenings)
Surplus
produce to
farmers
market or
food bank/
community
kitchen

6. Who does the work?*
• Paid staff hired through grants and wage subsidies – one
program leader for the Children’s Program and one for the
Youth Program (Urban Roots Youth), 4-6 youth in summer.
Programs rotate through gardens.
• Volunteers – trained, police-checked
• Interns & practicum students from various college/university
programs; secondary Co-op students
*besides the children

7. Winchester PS: SK-8.
11,000 sq. ft. Full sun, outdoor classroom, rainwater
catchment, food beds, naturalized beds, fruit trees and shrubs,
composting, shade trees

9. Rose Ave PS
Shady unused corner
transformed!
Less than 6 hrs
sun/day, but
produces a high
volume of greens
& herbs.

10. Sprucecourt PS
Lean-to greenhouse
extends the growing
season
Salad Celebration in
June at each school

11. Building
raised
beds from
Earth Blocks, a
low-carbon
alternative to
wood and
concrete.
Students from
grades 4-8 built
9 raised beds in
3 schools in this
project funded
by Live Green
Toronto.
projects

12. Kinder-GARDEN!
• 8 teachers in 5 schools
involved in pilot project –
we supplied materials &
lessons, teachers ran
weekly programs on their
own/with volunteers
• Teachers met twice to
share their learning.
Result is 70pp book
available on our website

13. composting
Environmental High-Skills Majors Co-op students (Grade 11 & 12) help
maintain and teach composting

14. Summer arts, games
Flower pounding,
Stick Passing game

15. Spring
Harvest
Garlic, salad
greens, peas,
sorrel, red currant
Fall Harvest
Potatoes, tomatoes, beans, cucumbers,
melons, squash, sweet potatoes, herbs

16. Indoor programs:
Stone Soup,
Seed Packaging,
Design your Own Garden

18. School Garden Day
• May 22, 2015 (4th
Friday in May)
• Launched at Castlebridge PS in Mississauga in 2013
• 26 schools in 2014, representing over 2,000 students
• Register on website, receive certificate for
participating

19. Local school garden entrepreneurs
Leila Mireskandari has started a small
business using her own
indoor/outdoor curricula developed
at her daughter’s school. She plans to
expand to new schools. See this video
and visit kidsgrowingcity.ca for more
details.
Elin Marley runs multiple school food
garden programs in downtown east-end
schools. She’s developed her own
curriculum, and schools pay her for her
time. She explains more in this video
and check out her blog at
seedlingstories.wordpress.com