The Garden School Foundation

A 10 minute video on the creation of a school garden project at the 24th Street Elementary School in Los Angeles. Students and adults comment on the transformation of an asphalt slab to a garden project. View video at their website.

Who: The Garden School Foundation is a coalition of citizens, businesses, and community organizations. Our founding members include chef Nancy Silverton, teacher Linda Slater, principal Grace Yoon, designer Karen Haas, United Neighborhood Council representative Marva Maxey, the garden design firm Nancy Goslee Power & Associates, and La Brea Bakery.

What: A community partnership with Los Angeles Unified School District dedicated to bringing verdant traffic buffers, sports facilities, native gardens, science gardens, kitchen gardens, and teaching kitchens to public schools.

Where: Our prototype is 24th Street Elementary School in central Los Angeles.

Why: Because schools should be like parks not prisons; the best way to learn about good food is to grow it; and children have to know nature to love it.

When: Negotiations with the district began in September 2003, a partnership was struck in 2004, and a temporary courtyard teaching garden was dug by Garden School Foundation volunteers, teachers, and students in May 2005. Construction on the main yard, with LAUSD following a prototype plan developed by Nancy Goslee Power & Associates, began in January 2006. The half-acre teaching garden is currently being developed. Students are planting vegetables and the designers are finalizing plans to include a garden shed, council circles, and straw paths throughout the space. A kitchen classroom will be created by adapting an old LAUSD bungalow with support of the local catering community.