On September 2, 2014, the Captain Planet Foundation (CPF) rolls out a new item for the classroom: Project Learning Garden™ program. The classroom will need to order the lesson supply kit to build their school garden. The typical classroom will need to hold a fundraiser or obtain a local corporate sponsor to cover the cost before downloading the program directly into their classroom at a sum of $1,000. Don't panic, if you qualify a grant may be available through CPF.
CPF's innovative Project Learning Garden™ program provides schools with strategies for building effective and long-lasting garden-based learning programs. Teachers are provided with hands-on training, curriculum aligned to national standards, lesson kits filled with supplies, a schoolyard garden, fully-equipped garden cooking cart, and summer garden management intern. Find out more at http://www.captainplanetfoundation.org/learning-garden/.
Pratt, America’s fifth-largest corrugated packaging company, has established an e-commerce platform enabling teachers to download lessons. A fulfillment center has also been established to assemble and the ship kits and the mobile cooking carts. The downloadable program initially starts with grades K-5. Pratt (http://www.prattindustries.com/) will donate ordering, assembling, housing, and same-day shipping. It's all part of their giving initiatives or in other words, an investment in future generations.
The program has school gardens in its hometown of Atlanta, Georgia and Ventura, California They hope to have 110 schools in Atlanta participating by the end of 2014 and 10 in Ventura. CPF works hard to fund environmental education and stewardship programs for K-12 kids in all 50 states and 23 countries. It was co-founded by media mogul Ted Turner in 1991 and is now chaired by his daughter, Laura Turner Seydel.
Also on Sept. 2, 2014, FoodCorps, a national farm-to-school organization that connects children in under-served communities to unprocessed food, will expand to Georgia (https://www.foodcorps.org/about). Georgia Organics will serve as its official state host for the organization (http://www.georgiaorganics.org/). FoodCorps is part of the AmeriCorps Service Network and is adding the State of Georgia and Washington, D.C. to its 15-state program.
In Georgia, eight FoodCorps service members will dedicate one year of full-time public service in school food systems, working with service site organizations such as CPF, the Athens Land Trust (http://www.athenslandtrust.org/community-agriculture-new/), and the Northeast Georgia Farm to School Program (http://www.farmtoschool.org/). Service members will expand existing hands-on nutrition education programs, build and tend school gardens, while bringing high-quality local foods into school cafeterias. Find out more at https://www.foodcorps.org/get-involved/school-garden-grants