Yes of course! Evergreen is great in that they help fund schools to get their gardens started, and they have an active partnership with the largest school board in Canada, the Toronto District School Board, to support the Ecoschools initiative which includes "vibrant school grounds." However, it is also well known that gardens (especially food-producing ones) are easier to start than to maintain over a number of years - key champions move on and sorry for the pun but the gardens are not evergreened! The partnership that groups like ours offer is akin to visiting artists or itinerant musicians or librarians - yet gardens need regular maintenance so it's a bit more labour intensive and also requires storage and water access, sometimes a challenge. My read of the situation in the US is that it is a bit better in that many school boards actually fund garden programs, but it is still uneven, which makes sense since there certainly is no one way to do it. I'm inspired by many of the models I read about in the US, and look forward to learning more.
Sunday