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2026 Elementary School Garden Camp

Dates: June 22-26

Please review the 2026 Elementary School Garden Camp Handbook before registration for details.

Registration Closed

NEW! 2026 Intermediate School Garden Camp

Dates: August 3-7

Please review the 2026 TPIS Garden Camp Handbook before registration for details.

register here

Please reach out to Molly Gassaway, molly@communityfoodinitiatives.org for more information. Thank you!

What is the Garden Education Program?

CFI helps manage and support several gardens located on the grounds of local schools, from preschools up to high schools. Our Garden Education Program provides learning opportunities for students during the school year and through camps in the summer.

Kids participate in general garden maintenance as well as other fun, educational, and creative activities. Sometimes we have formal lessons about ecology, the environment, and plant science; other times we learn through taste tests, catching bugs, and looking for worms!

What happens to the food harvested from school gardens varies by school.  We offer taste tests and include produce on school salad bars when possible.  During the summer months, the volunteers who maintain school gardens can keep what they harvest, and excess produce is given to the Donation Station.

kids digging in a garden with hand trowels

What Do School Gardens Offer Your Students?

School Gardening is an investment in sustaining and growing the harvest here in Appalachian Ohio. School Gardening activities enable students to learn about gardening, the environment, food, and nutrition.  While gardening, students develop practical life skills and engage in physical activity.  As outdoor learning labs, school gardens offer a unique, multi-sensory, inquiry-based education.  Most importantly, the creative and often playful approach of school gardening instills confidence and enthusiasm for life-long learning.

Sprouts Program

Sprouts is a School Garden program specifically designed for first-grade students. It is currently in place in both Athens City School District Elementary Schools (Morrison-Gordon and East), as well as Amesville Elementary.  This program offers students a space to engage in regular hands-on lessons both in their School Gardens and in their classrooms. Lessons are facilitated by a combination of CFI staff, COMCorps members through the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine, community volunteers, and Ohio University interns and volunteers.

The curriculum enhances school learning standards with additional goals to:

  • Increase students’ knowledge of where food comes from

  • Gain a deeper understanding of the environment and sustainable agriculture

  • Build connections between healthy bodies and healthy gardens

  • Increase physical activity

  • Increase gardening skills

  • Engage students’ creativity through art projects connected to the School Garden

  • Increase students’ exposure to locally grown foods

  • Transfer skills and knowledge to the home and the community 

School Gardening is an investment in sustaining and growing the harvest here in Appalachian Ohio. School Gardening activities enable students to learn about gardening, the environment, food, and nutrition.  While gardening, students develop practical life skills and engage in physical activity.  As outdoor learning labs, school gardens offer a unique, multi-sensory, inquiry-based education.  Most importantly, the creative and often playful approach of school gardening instills confidence and enthusiasm for life-long learning.

Looking for a School Garden Guide?

Download Here