There are themes in the applications we receive for school garden mini-grants: Kentucky students are disconnected from food production AND schools value hands-on learning experiences for students. School gardens are a great way to address both. Now in the fourth cycle, School Garden Mini-Grants provide $5,000 to Kentucky preK-12 schools for gardening and related cooking activities. These grants are highly competitive. This year, 72 schools submitted letters of intent to apply for a grant. Thirteen of those were invited to submit a full proposal, including a garden plan, an education plan, a financial plan and a project budget.
This year’s grantees are: Hawthorne Elementary in Jefferson County, Cumberland County High School, Royal Spring Middle School in Scott County, Southern Middle School in Fayette County and Munfordville School in Hart County. Plans include garden clubs, STEM activities and garden-to-table cooking. Several of this year’s projects will benefit special ed students and several feature strong student leadership. School resource officers and janitors, parents and principals and teachers are all working together to bring these projects to life.
Last year’s grantees reported over 45,000 hours of student time in the garden. One elementary school project lead said the best thing about their project was “the amazement from the students on harvesting. The children were always so amazed and surprised about what we were able to grow.” Community Farm Alliance would like to thank the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky for their financial support of these grants.en family farms and build a more resilient local food system for Kentucky.