About The School Garden Program

Since 1997, the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center’s School Garden Teacher Training & Support Program has been cultivating ecological literacy in school communities and supporting school garden teams to establish and sustain their garden projects. With our help, and the dedication of tens of thousands of students, teachers, parents, administrators, and facility management staff, Northern California schools are expanding the scope and value of school gardens. Many school projects now include recycling programs, vermiculture (worm box composting), community projects, habitat ponds, cooking-from-the-garden activities, salad bars, and farm-to-school programs.

In 2002, then School Garden Program Director Tina Poles worked closely with Delaine Eastin, former California State Superintendent of Public Instruction, and a small team of educators to research and write A Child’s Garden of Standards. This guide offers specific curricula enabling teachers to link their school gardens with state standards. It is now available as a download on the California Dept of Education website under “Publications”.

In 2004, we launched a project to serve low-income schools in San Francisco. Because the urban environment offers few opportunities for children to observe and interact with the natural world, participation in a school garden program can be a life-changing experience for children in the inner city. Low-income schools face distinct challenges in developing garden-based projects, including student populations speaking multiple languages and a lack of support resources for both children and parents.

Our Urban School Garden Coordinator, Rachel Pringle, provides continuing support to each of the participating schools in San Francisco Unified School District.

Project grants from foundations enable OAEC to offer this program to school participants for a reduced fee. Over the past 10 years, OAEC's School Garden Teacher Training and Support Program has received generous support from the following foundations: Center for Ecoliteracy, Chez Panisse Foundation, Community Foundation Sonoma County, Stuart Foundation, Walter and Elise Haas Fund, Lisa and Douglas Goldman Fund, Compton Foundation, Foundation for Sustainability and Innovation, David B. Gold Foundation, Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, Donald and Maureen Green Foundation, Laurence Levine Charitable Fund, San Francisco Foundation, L.J. Skaggs and Mary C. Skaggs Foundation, Rudolf Steiner Foundation, and the Unity Avenue Foundation. Generous gifts are also received from OAEC's members and donors.