NCYGS Notes from the “Policies to Support School Gardens” Group in Austin, TX

[sam.ullery]

School Garden Support Organizations UNITE! 

Notes from the “Policies to Support School Gardens” Group

We had 9 people in our group and here are the highlights.    

• Registration of School Garden (this is done across the US but we has representation from Charleston and Austin) is highly recommended as a way to more easily provide support and ensure specific requirements are met while also cross checking that there are no other future plans for that sight.

• Establishing Committees to manage school garden programs, these range greatly from Environmental Schools Advisory Committees to Health and Wellness Committees but there groups can serve to both establishing and “enforcing” policy. 

• Action Plans are another type of policy that can include school garden initiatives.  The Climate Action Plan (Austin) is one example of this. 

• Legislation such as CA AB18-26 which requires composting over a certain amount (includes schools) are examples of how policy can be implemented through legislation to influence school gardens. 

[Emilie Gioia]

Thanks for this, Sam. 

When you say, "registration of school gardens" - are the examples you're referencing in a centralized system for a school district or in a larger national database or network?

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[Ullery, Sam (OSSE)]

Hi Emilie,  Our group was discussion registration at a regional level (state, school district).  Maybe this then could “filter up” to the edible schoolyard so there’s a robust national data base as well.   

 

Sam Ullery

School Garden Specialist
P: (202) 741-6485 C: (202) 341 0791

sam.u...@dc.gov

 

[Emilie Gioia]

Thanks, yes, the Edible Schoolyard Network is actively mapping edible education around the country, which is largely made up of school gardens and cooking programs. It would be very helpful to hear about the kinds of data is being collected at the regional level.

On the Edible Schoolyard Network, the profile requests basic program contact information, plus key impact data (such as the year the program was founded, the number of students that participate, the age/grade level of participating students). There's quite a bit more information we are interested in gathering (program and participant demographics, programming hours, program size/scale, program growth). 

Wondering if this data is widely seen as useful to you (and anyone reading this!)? And if there's more we ought to ask for? Thanks for thoughts!

[Grubbs, Lindsey]

Hi!

The Florida Farm to School Program is current accessing all the school gardens we have within our state that are on the National School Lunch Program. We hope to have our first phase (baseline) of the census completed in December of this year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lindsey Grubbs

Florida Farm to School & WIC Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program Director

Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services
Division of Food, Nutrition and Wellness

Office: (850) 617-7437

Cell: (850) 510-4465

Fax: (850) 617-7402

Lindsey...@FreshFromFlorida.com

 

The Holland Building

600 South Calhoun Street (H2)

Tallahassee, Florida 32399

 

 

Please note that Florida has a broad public records law (Chapter 119, Florida Statutes). Most written communications to or from state employees are public records obtainable by the public upon request.  Emails sent to me at this email address may be considered public and will only be withheld from disclosure if deemed confidential pursuant to the laws of the State of Florida.

[Cindy Barry]

Hello from Connecticut – We are currently surveying 82 schools in New London County CT about their school garden.  I am attaching the survey.  We mapped the school gardens in our area 15 months ago, as part of our Farm to School Support Program Grant and will be updating our map (with hopefully A LOT MORE school gardens)  See the map attached.  I am always interested in learning more about surveying and mapping.  Thanks for the email.

 

Cindy Barry

 

Cindy Barry, MA

Senior Health Program Coordinator

ACHIEVE New London County Coalition

p. 860.448.4882 ext. 302

f. 860.448.4885

email: cba...@llhd.org

www.llhd.org

Promoting healthy communities

[John Fisher]

Great to see all these mapping and surveys taking place!

I will add to the discussion. The USDA Farm to School Census includes a question regarding school gardens but it doesn't seem to provide as much detail as these state and regional surveys that are taking place.

A while back we had a discussion on school garden surveys and since that time there has been so much action, as evident from this discussion.

Here are some more surveying resources from the School Garden Survey discussion thread.

I have ran two CA School Garden Surveys that have questions that you can easily "borrow"

Oregon has surveyed their whole state and Minneapolis Public Schools has just competed School Garden Summary.

I have added references to these in the School Garden Surveys discussion thread.