School Community Garden Grand Opening at Pasadena High School Slated for Sept. 8

The new half-acre garden at Pasadena High School will be the 19th built on a Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD) campus. – Courtesy photo

Children, families, volunteers, and local officials will celebrate the grand opening of a school community garden at Pasadena High School (PHS) Friday, Sept. 8, 2017 at 8:30 a.m. The garden was developed thanks to a grant from the Pasadena Community Gardens Conservancy (PCGC) to the Pasadena Educational Foundation (PEF) and the Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD). PUSD Superintendent Brian McDonald, Ed.D., Pasadena City Council Member Gene Masuda, and Pasadena Community Gardens Conservancy’s Eileen Reed will deliver remarks at the celebration.

“Our school garden program is thriving and providing outdoor classroom space for students to learn about healthy eating, science, and other subjects,” said Superintendent Brian McDonald.

“Thanks to the dedication and generosity of our community partners, we’re expanding the way students learn.”

The new half-acre garden at PHS will be the 19th built on a PUSD campus. The garden will serve as an outdoor classroom for more than 1,800 PHS students and enrich science learning. The school garden will include vegetables, herbs, and fruit grown from seeds and seedlings. Curriculum will lead students through lessons in seeds and germination, soils, insects, gardening, harvesting, and nutrition.

“The Conservancy is honored to be partnering with the Pasadena Educational Foundation in support of PUSD’s blossoming school-garden educational program,” said PCGC Chair Beth Hansen.

For PCGC, the PHS garden is the fifth educational food garden to receive a grant from the grassroots foundation since it was formed in 2012. The PHS garden is PCGC’s first foray into funding secondary-school educational gardens, as well as the first to be operated largely by students. In addition to funding the PHS garden in the 2017-18 school year, PCGC is also underwriting the $42,000 salary of the PUSD Master Gardener. PCGC also is helping to steward a new garden at Washington STEAM Magnet Academy, a middle school located in Northwest Pasadena’s “food desert,” through a $5,000 grant from the Pasadena Community Foundation. Additional funding for the PHS Garden was also provided by the Tournament of Roses Foundation.

Pasadena Educational Foundation (PEF) is a nonprofit organization that advocates for public education, engages the community, and develops resources to support excellent education for every Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD) student. Whether it be through the arts, music, health centers, gardens, or STEM programs they support, PEF is dedicated to creating a better future for the public school students of Altadena, Pasadena, and Sierra Madre.

www.pased.org

Pasadena Community Gardens Conservancy (PCGC) is a young, grassroots nonprofit foundation dedicated to improving family health in Northwest Pasadena’s urban “food desert” neighborhoods through grants to build community gardens, nutrition education, and botanical science education. PCGC has donated more than $200,000 in grants, built five gardens, and supported two Master Gardeners, since it was created in 2012. www.pasadenaconservancy.org, info@pasadenaconservancy.org

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