Grow to Learn NYC: the Citywide School Gardens Initiative was established in 2010 as a public-private partnership between GrowNYC, The Mayor’s Fund, and several government agency partners. Grow to Learn profiles successful school gardens in their monthly newsletter The School Gardens Beet. The September profile appears below. It was a week before the school year officially began yet Columbia Secondary School for Math, Science & Engineering (CSS-MSE)’s garden was blooming with activity as students planted pollinator-attracting perennials, filled beds with soil, weeded, added trellis lines to tomato plants, turned the compost, and painted. Abby (13), Ashley (12), and Ariana (11) led me around their garden, expertly identifying their crops and generously offering me tastes along the way. Constructed by students practicing their engineering skills, the raised beds were lined with plastic and chicken wire to dissuade animals from burrowing inside. As we moved on, some unique and colorful structures caught my eye. The garden has two rainwater barrels painted as a chicken and a pig, and a large brightly-painted wooden shed. The front is painted with chalkboard paint where students list their garden to-dos and create temporary works of art. Ashley pointed out the different tools and supplies in the shed, but was particularly proud of the supply of extra work boots in case a student isn’t wearing proper footwear. Abby was also proud to point out the garden’s six compost bins and their contents. Abby’s dad built the garden’s most recent addition: the compost tumbler. Made out of salvaged materials, it includes engineering that will enable them to harvest natural gas from the compost! Using student recipes and ideas, they plan to use the gas for cooking in the garden, an activity that the students enthusiastically lead from prep to feast. What were these students doing in the garden during their summer vacation? Ariana expressed that she likes to plant and “growing different types of plants and vegetables is cool.” Ashley loves the garden, it is “a place for me and my friends to gather while helping the environment and still have fun.” Abby agreed and added that being in the garden “is a chance to get away from the city.” Behind the students’ love for the garden is a dedicated and inspirational teacher, Meredith Hill. Meredith’s goal is to make the garden as student-driven as possible. During the month of June, students participate in an elective course focusing on one topic. Abby and Ashley joined Meredith and 30 other classmates in the garden for a Food and Sustainability course where they learned garden care, compost, raised bed construction, and how to prepare meals using produce from the garden, choosing what to plant and cook. The course culminated in the publication of Fresh!, a student-authored anthology created entirely by the 7th grade Food and Sustainability Class and features some of our favorite GreenThumb school gardeners. Students teach skills that they learn to fellow gardeners and the rest of the school community. From Garden to Café harvest events incorporating garden produce into the menu to collecting food waste for composting, the school gardeners have a big presence during lunch at CSS-MSE. Following a student suggestion, the School Food Director allowed students to harvest, prepare and add fresh veggies to pizza as well as distribute samples of garden produce from tomatoes to kale chips. To keep the students’ interest and excitement—and the garden—maintained, Meredith introduced open garden hours during the summer. Students were able to choose their level of involvement with the garden and it provides a chance for students who were not in her class to dig in and help. CSS-MSE’s gardening successes didn’t come without challenges. After two years of having a rooftop garden, new regulations made them unable to use the space. Meredith explained, “I started looking for spaces elsewhere to garden, and a colleague suggested that I check out this space. The site was indeed overgrown and abandoned. Once we discovered it was a Parks Department property, I contacted GreenThumb and we started the process of registering it as a garden. Crucial to this process was finding interested parents and colleagues who helped make connections and offer support to the garden. We received keys about a year later, in the spring of 2010.” Meredith and her students are so grateful for all the support they have received from GreenThumb and Grow to Learn as they have built and improved their garden. Now that the school year has begun, they will transition some of their beds into colder-weather crops, and hope to extend the growing season, thanks to new row-covers from a recent GreenThumb workshop! They plan to hold leaf raking parties in Morningside Park to stow away lots of brown material for their year of cafeteria compost. Meredith will incorporate the garden into her English class this year as a way to demonstrate how gardening supports the Common Core standards. Students are also enthusiastically planning a GreenThumb composting workshop for this October that will be led by 7th and 8th grade students. Keep a lookout in our October newsletter for the exact date, time, and location.

Grow Truck is GrowNYC's mobile tool-lending program, delivering tools, donated plants, soil, compost, and lumber, and dispensing on-site technical assistance all across New York City, for free since 1977. We've had our current Grow Truck for 23 years, and it's time for a new one - and you can help us get a brand new truck by voting for GrowNYC in Toyota's 100 Cars for Good contest on Facebook. On Sunday May 20th, go to 100carsforgood.com and vote for GrowNYC. In the meantime, you can "Attend" our Facebook event so you get a reminder to vote for us on the 20th. Until May 20th, watch the video we made especially for this contest, and look through some of our photos below of the Grow Truck's past 35 years. And by all means - if you've got a project that you need to borrow tools for, let us know!

We are truly thankful for the time volunteers commit to helping GrowNYC provide resources for a better NYC. Meet a few of our awesome volunteers! JOE BUCK As an Open Space Greening volunteer with GrowNYC, Joe has led teams of volunteers at Greening's biggest event of the year, the Annual Spring Plant Sale, which distributes plants to over 500 neighborhood garden projects every year. Why he does it: I enjoy the opportunities with GrowNYC and the community gardens because I get to tap into my imaginary “Inner-Gardener” in the midst of the urban jungle. “To be of service” was instilled in me growing up, so it feels natural to lend a hand. Besides, being self-absorbed is far more exhausting. The best part: Getting dirty! My job is a suit and tie. So having the opportunity to dig in the dirt, learn about a flower or vegetable or help create an oasis in what was once an empty lot is magical. It sounds bit corny, but I mean it. The impact: It connects resources with needs! It gives people the opportunity to step out their comfort zones and actually be part of the solution. Each one teach one, right?! NANCY RAPHAEL As a recycling volunteer with GrowNYC, Nancy has helped teach New Yorkers about composting and contributed to successful recycling at large events. Why she does it: I thoroughly believe that it takes a collective effort to make a difference and enjoy working with GrowNYC staff and fellow volunteers who have dedication visible in their faces. I do not view my volunteering experience as giving up my Saturday or Sunday, or as sacrificing my sleep. Instead, I see it as contributing my time to making a big difference in changing the carbon footprint of New York and I am proud to be a part of such a large task. The best part: The fun of engaging with New Yorkers and asking them to take care of the city they live in and think of the world they are a part of as well as connecting with fellow volunteers. I also enjoy the camaraderie between recycling volunteers that makes for a successful effort. The impact: As people become more and more conscious, they will feel compelled to volunteer their time and recycle at home and everywhere they may be--picking up stuff on the ground or advising others to recycle. ERIN EASTERN As a Greenmarket volunteer with GrowNYC, Erin staffs Union Square Greenmarket's Market Information Station and answers customer questions while assisting with cooking demonstrations and other market promotions. Why I do it: I volunteer because I believe in the farmers market/food justice movement and enjoy being helpful to the Market Managers so that they can run one of the best Public Markets in the world. I am proud to be a small part in the success of Greenmarket. Also, I love being outside rain or shine. As an indoor worker during the week, I genuinely miss the time I spent working outdoors and the feeling of being out there (especially when the weather is beautiful, of course). The best part: Having a community that is separate from my work, family, and friends. The people I meet through Greenmarket cross the usual cultural boundaries (e.g. urban/rural, young/old, farmer/organizer) and broaden my social world. I enjoy meeting the other volunteers and learning how they came to Greenmarket; making new friends that also have an interest in food justice, urban growing, CSA's, and a myriad of other cool things unrelated to food like film studies, United States law, and sports. The impact: The larger impact of Greenmarket is huge and I like thinking about how I am part of what they accomplish: Encouraging New Yorkers to interact with their food producers and learn where their food comes from; providing underserved communities access to fresh, healthy foods; creating a learning environment for schools and media; incubating small businesses and helping farmers to stay on their land.

We're proud to report that Grow to Learn NYC: the Citywide School Gardens Initiative has just celebrated its first anniversary. A public/private partnership between GrowNYC, the Mayor’s Office to Advance New York City, and GreenThumb, NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, Grow to Learn was created to inspire, create and maintain gardens in every public school in New York City. Offering mini-grants, free materials and technical expertise to registered gardens, Grow to Learn helps school gardeners create gardens that can be utilized as outdoor classrooms and indoor living labs.

We're also proud that we've just registered our 200th school garden. From the southern tip of Manhattan to the northern reaches of the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island, school gardens of all shapes and sizes are flourishing. Teachers are able to utilize the gardens to help students apply what they have learned in the classroom to everything from science and math to foreign languages, nutrition, health and even music. After-school programs in urban planning, environmental studies and urban farming are able to utilize the gardens as teaching tools, and summertime gardening programs are able to continue to harvest fresh vegetables through the peak growing season. Students report that they feel more enthusiastic about learning when they can see how it applies in "the real world," teachers report that the students feel a deep sense of personal responsibility and pride that their school has a garden and an overall greater interest in subjects where the garden is utilized. We are also told that having a school garden creates a sense of community within the school and also with the community at large as neighbors stop by to find out what the kids are doing in the garden.

Don’t see your school garden on the list or want to start one at your school? Visit Grow to Learn to read all about the benefits of registration at our website www.growtolearn.org, view Success Stories for some inspiration about what a school garden can look like, or get Step-by-Step help to learn how to start a garden at a school of your own. You can also find us on Facebook!

Starting a school garden is an incredibly rewarding endeavor; get started now and perhaps yours can be garden #201!

Order your beautiful, colorful and informative 2012 Endangered Species calendar, designed by high school students from the South Bronx today.

10 talented Morrisania-based teens and Learn it, Grow It, Eat It program interns designed a calendar featuring endangered species. As part of our year-round program, 200 teens get outside for hands-on gardening, learn about healthy eating and make the connection between health, nutrition and environment.

You will receive a calendar for your donation of $25 dollars. Make sure you designate "Environmental Education" and type "2012 Calendar" in the Dedication box when you make your gift and we’ll send you a calendar.

Donate here and receive your calendar!

Our Learn It, Grow It, Eat It program, recently received ABC7 coverage, spotlighting their work growing food at Wishing Well Community Garden.

The ABC crew filmed our LGE summer interns on a day that our friends from Gotham Bar & Grill had dropped in to help with a day of work in the garden, and to share their culinary expertise in cooking some of the produce our teens have been growing this summer. Gotham volunteers helped prepare the garden site in the Spring, so harvesting the fruits of their earlier work was fitting.

Congratulations to our summer interns, and many thanks to Gotham Bar and Grill, who have been big supporters of the Learn It, Grow It, Eat It program.

Today, GrowNYC and the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City—co-founders of Grow to Learn: the Citywide School Gardens Initiative—were joined by Deputy NYC Parks Commissioner Larry Scott Blackmon, Chef Michael Anthony of Gramercy Tavern and staff and families at PS 154 in Windsor Terrace to highlight the critical nutrition lessons gardens provide and kick-off a week-long promo, Dining Out for School Gardens.

Students at PS 154 were outside participating in a cooking demo with Chef Michael Anthony and Whitney Reuling, Garden to Cafe Coordinator for the Office of SchoolFood, as part of Harvest Day, where students serve up what they’ve grown in the garden in their cafeteria.

PS 154 was recently awarded a Grow to Learn mini-grant to amend garden beds, purchase composters and lights so they can grow seeds indoors. After registering their garden on www.nyc.gov/growtolearn, they received donated plant materials and technical assistance from Grow to Learn Partner Green Thumb, and their Harvest Day and other nutrition curriculum comes from participating in Garden to School Café, another partner in Grow to Learn.

From June 24 – 30, you can visit participating restaurants and help NYC youth gain better skills, habits and knowledge about growing, eating and preparing food. All of the Dining Out for School Gardens restaurants, will donate a percentage of the sales of one or more menu items towards supporting school gardens.

Grow to Learn NYC: the Citywide School Gardens Initiative, a program co-founded by GrowNYC, knows that gardens, cafes and cafeterias are classrooms too, so we asked NYC chefs to lend their support and expertise.

Chefs are an integral part of shaping how we eat and how we view food so it’s only natural that they take part in GrowNYC’s Grow to Learn school gardens program. In gardens, in farmers markets, in schools and in restaurants NYC chefs are helping to advance the good food/good health movement by:

• Teaching students how to prepare healthy school lunches, snacks, and meals using fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs
• Encouraging healthy eating habits by demonstrating the natural deliciousness of farm fresh foods
• Introducing young people on the cusp of adulthood to possible career choices

From June 24 – 30, you can visit participating restaurants and help NYC youth gain better skills, habits and knowledge about growing, eating and preparing food. All of the Dining Out for School Gardens restaurants, will donate a percentage of the sales of one or more menu items towards supporting school gardens.

Your participation will help ensure that New York City’s youth are getting outside and growing–and making the connection between what’s in the garden with what’s on their plates by visiting these restaurants:

MANHATTAN

Back Forty – Sauteed tokoyo turnips (side dish)

Elsewhere Restaurant – Eat Drink Local Week prix fixe menu

Gotham Bar and Grill – a special $25 Greenmarket menu

Gramercy Tavern – Eat Drink Local Week prix fixe menu

The Green Table – local artisanal cheese plate

Henry's – Greenmarket square meal

Hung Ry – Eat Drink Local Week prix fixe menu

I Trulli – special Greenmarket Tasting Menu

Má Pêche - mushroom + asparagus appetizer

Mae Mae Café - Veggie burger

Northern Spy Food Co.

Riverpark - Mascarpone Ravioli

Salumeria Rosi Parmacotto culatello locale

Battery Park City Shake Shack - summer blackberry cobbler milkshake

Trestle on Tenth - Greenmarket strawberry sundae and spinach gnocchi

‘wichcraft – Asparagus frittata, roasted free-range chicken, and marinated zucchini sandwiches

BROOKLYN

iCi - A special Eat & Drink Local Menu ($46)

Rose Water – Eat Drink Local week menu

The Vanderbilt – Fleischer’s Heritage Pork Loin

Interested in supporting Grow to Learn NYC?  Donate today!
(choose Citywide School Gardens as your program designation)

Grow to Learn is a program of GrowNYC and the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City. Learn more at www.nyc.gov/growtolearn.

To add your restaurant to this promotion, contact Julie Walsh at jwalsh@grownyc.org.

Grow to Learn recently awarded 29 Mini-Grants of up to $2,000 to help NYC schools keep their gardens growing. Schools will use funds to purchase soil, tools, seeds, hoses, wheelbarrows, gloves, and even provide professional development and garden training for teachers. "We evaluated over 60 competitive proposals, and looked for projects that are well planned, sustainable and have a positive impact on children related to nutrition and environmental education," said Grow to Learn Coordinator Erica Keberle. If your school has not yet applied for a Grow to Learn Mini-Grant, our next application deadline is June 30, 2011. Those schools that did not receive a Mini-Grant during the last round are eligible to reapply. Past Mini-Grant recipients are not eligible to reapply. Now is the perfect time to register your garden with Grow to Learn and apply for a Mini-Grant. Special thanks to Bank of America and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation for their generous support of Grow to Learn Mini-Grants. The 29 grantees are: Bronx Dewitt Clinton High School University Heights High School PS 43 Jonas Bronck & Mott Haven Academy Charter School Brooklyn Alternate Learning Center - John Jay Community Roots Charter School High School for Public Service Kurt Hahn School Bedford Village School, Public School 3 The Clinton Hill School, PS 20 PS 29 John M. Harrigan John W. Kimball Learning Center, PS 107 PS 149 Danny Kaye PS 154 PS 230 Doris L. Cohen PS 261 Philip Livingston Park Slope Elementary and Middle School, PS/MS 282 The William Penn School, PS 321 Manhattan LaGuardia Arts High School Muscota New School & Amistad Dual Language School John Melser Charrette School, PS 3 The William T. Harris School, PS 11 River East Elementary School, PS 37 PS 110 Florence Nightingale Manhattan Middle School for Scientific Inquiry, MS 328 Manhattan School for Children, PS 333 American Sign Language and English Lower School, PS 347 Queens East-West School of International Studies John Bowne Elementary, PS 20 Staten Island Intermediate School 49 Berta A. Dreyfus

Learn It, Grow It, Eat It started it's annual spring break internship five years ago after hearing from high schoolers how bored they were during their week off. Last week, 8 students from 3 high schools (Bronx International, Bronx Regional and LaGuardia high schools) worked together for 2 days in Wishing Well Community Garden getting veggie plots ready for spring and then putting together a nutrition education label reading workshop which they presented to staff at the Novetel Hotel in Midtown Manhattan.

The presentation featured the debut of LGE's latest interactive display, "Chubby Comes to America," a look at the mind-boggling amounts of sugar in favorite children's drinks and foods. Staff at the hotel were truly surprised by what the teens had to tell them and asked if they could come to their children's school to do the same. Intern Alhassan Yaya said, "I feel very proud that i had the opportunity to teach adults things that they didn't know." Another intern, Kassandra Ramos, really enjoyed "doing something positive with students from other high schools."