Spring Garden Programs begin the second week of March, which means weekly volunteer opportunities!
If you haven’t volunteered with us, please email info@lcschoolgardens.org to tell us particular times you’re available – weekly, monthly, or even annually – every hour makes a difference in the lives of kids and families in our community.
Print your own copy: School Gardens Spring 2016
What is Edible Olympic?
First the garden. On Thursdays students are farmers. They work in a 10,000 square foot garden that was an unfenced green field in early 2015. They’ve planted berry bushes, fruit trees, and have rows of soil waiting for the spring planting. They plant, weed, and thin their crops until the food is ready to harvest.
Second the kitchen. On Fridays the students are chefs. They take this produce and combine it with healthy, economical groceries and slice, dice, bake, roast, simmer, and sauté incredible meals. After the cooking class they take the ingredients they need home and cook and eat the same meal with their families.
“Ultimately, it is our volunteers who make it possible for students to experience the garden in a meaningful way.”
Whether you are already helping in a school garden, or just thinking about getting your hands dirty, this FREE TRAINING EVENT is for you!
We hope you can attend one of these two (identical) sessions:
Location:
Northlake Elementary
Garden Lab Rm 26 (2nd portable)
2210 Olympia Way
Longview, WA 98632
Enjoy learning and connecting with great people who have a shared passion for kids, gardens, and good food. Snacks provided. Meet the new garden rabbits Sam and Sorrel.
This training is free! All are welcome.
To REGISTER: send an email to ian@lcschoolgardens.org, specify which day works best for you.
See you there – thank you!
Check out this short video to learn more about Lower Columbia School Gardens: how it all started, and how we engage kids and families.
Over the last year, we have been proud to help students plant 102,000 square feet of space in more than fourteen School Gardens. That’s a lot of growing space! When you’re dedicated to starting your veggies from seed, that much garden space means having plenty of quality seeds around.
We are immensely grateful for the companies who provided us with seeds this past year. We’re still working on the tally, but the amount of fresh produce grown in 2015 far exceeds the amount we were able to grow the previous year.
It is with admiration for the beautiful work they do and their generous giving that we thank:
Adaptive Seeds
Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
Botanical Interests
High Mowing Seeds
Irish Eyes Garden Seeds
Peaceful Valley Seeds
Renee’s Garden Seeds
Seeds for Our Planet
Siskiyou Seeds
Territorial Seed Company
Tsugawa Nursery
Turtle Tree Seed
Uprising Seeds
Van der Salm Bulb Farm
Earlier this year, The Xerces Society of Portland generously donated Pollinator Habitat signs for all of our School Gardens. Posting these signs with students has started a number of profound conversations about the vital role that pollinators play in our gardens and our food supply.
For some students, these conversations have made them less fearful of insects that they thought were only made for stinging, and others have become more interested in paying attention to the small differences between various kinds of pollinators. The signs have also been a good reminder to simply be aware of the helpers in our gardens that are not always easy to see.
Students have helped to create a great deal of pollinator habitat in school gardens by planting many flowers and other plants crucial to their survival.
Thank you, Xerces Society!
To help protect an essential part of our environment, take the Pollinator Pledge and order a Pollinator Habitat sign for your own garden.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 1, 2015
Kaiser Permanente Northwest Awards Grant to Cowlitz County Health Department
Cowlitz County Health Department’s (CCHD) Office of Healthy Communities received $250,000 over
the next three years to partner with Lower Columbia School Gardens and the Longview and Kelso
School Districts to increase fruit and vegetable consumption for school-age children. This collaborative
project will expand access to school garden activities and curricula for children and their families.
This grant will allow Lower Columbia School Gardens to expand their capacity to serve more children in
our county through their 14 school-based gardens, and to integrate their programs and activities more
fully into the school environment. Longview and Kelso School Districts will be able to fully utilize school
gardens as an educational and community resource.
“We are grateful to Kaiser Permanente for this opportunity to engage even more kids in our school
gardens. We know that school gardens work; kids are more likely to eat and enjoy fruit and vegetables
they grow themselves, and they get excited about healthy cooking and eating as they learn about
where real food comes from and how it’s grown. We see that reality in our work every day, and this
new partnership will allow us to share that experience with more children, teachers and families in our
community,” says Ian Thompson, Executive Director of Lower Columbia School Gardens.
Kaiser Permanente Northwest is dedicated to improving the health of individuals and the communities
they serve. Specifically, their work is focused on connecting low-income people to health care,
educating children and families about healthy eating and active living, creating and sharing
groundbreaking research, strengthening health safety nets in communities, and supporting their employees’ community engagement.
CCHD provides broad-spectrum public health services to Cowlitz County residents aimed at improving
and protecting the health and well-being of individuals of all ages. To contact the Health Department,
please call 360-414-5599.
Job Announcement, November 2015
Garden Coordinator
Lower Columbia School Gardens
Lower Columbia School Gardens (LCSG) is a non-profit organization in Cowlitz County that helps schools start and sustain dynamic, thriving garden programs. LCSG has helped create and sustain 13 school gardens in Southwest Washington, and engages over 3,000 students each year in hands-on, garden based learning activities. Find out more on our website, http://www.lowercolumbiaschoolgardens.org/.
The Garden Coordinator facilitates a wide variety of hands-on learning for children in multiple school gardens by leading a wide variety of garden-based learning activities, including teaching garden and cooking lessons tied to curriculum standards. The Garden Coordinator promotes the LCSG mission with our partners, stakeholders and the general public. This is a full-time, 40 hour per week position with occasional evening and weekend hours. We are seeking a kind, creative, energetic person who is passionate about real food, kids, plants, and soil.
Essential Functions:
Qualifications:
Compensation: $12/hr.
Position is open until filled.
To apply for the position, please email a cover letter and resume to Ian Thompson, Executive Director for Lower Columbia School Gardens at ian@lcschoolgardens.org.
If you have questions, please contact Lauren Henricksen, henricksenl@co.cowlitz.wa.us or 360-414-5599 ext. 6434.
Download PDF: Garden Coordinator Job Description
The month of October was chock full of fun and goodness in the world of School Gardens. Most months of the year we delight in bringing real food and hands-on learning to hundreds of students on a weekly basis, but do you know what makes October so special?…
Harvest Festivals!
School Garden Harvest Festivals only happen once a year and call for “all hands on deck” to make them work. That means all of our School Garden volunteers, PTO members, staff, AmeriCorps members, parents and many of our board members show up to help. This year, our biggest year yet, nine elementary schools were able to participate.
That means every student at those 9 schools:
…all in their School Gardens.
Once again, none of these opportunities for our local students to experience real food and hands-on learning could happen without the support of so many people and businesses in this community. Thank you!
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There were even-happier-than-usual kids in many Kelso and Longview School Gardens last week as After School Garden Clubs had the opportunity to carve locally-grown pumpkins. 700(!) pumpkins were donated by Woodland farmer Randy Behrendsen who was happy just to know they were going home with kids. Members of the LCSG board, LCSG staff and a slew of volunteers met in Woodland early on a Saturday to load pumpkins into trucks and deliver them back to school gardens in Longview and Kelso.
During the following week, kids in elementary and middle school gardens throughout the area got the chance to carve, decorate and take home their donated pumpkins. Students also enjoyed freshly roasted pumpkins seeds and made-from-scratch hot cocoa with their pumpkin carving.
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