School Garden Network
Gorge Grown supported educators and students through the Columbia Gorge School Garden Network
Program Highlights:
The Annual School Garden Symposium provided students the opportunity to showcase their unique garden program. Students came together from around the Gorge to engage in hands-on activities and learn from each other outdoors in a day of garden-focused activities and demonstrations.
The Annual School Garden Teacher Training provided garden leaders and teachers the opportunity to share skills and learn about garden design, fundraising, addressing state standards through garden-based education, sustaining programs and more.
Tasting Tables: Gorge Grown Food Network and Oregon State University provided regular opportunities for students to try new fruits and veggies through monthly tasting and garden activities. We also worked with Hood River School District to source more local produce for the lunch line by connecting Nutrition Services with farmers to ‘grow a row” for students.
School Garden Classes: Gorge Grown’s Jesuit Volunteer/ AmeriCorps Volunteer provided direct support to Wy’east Middle School Garden and Mid-Valley Elementary School Garden in Odell throughout the school-year weekly. These schools have some of the highest rates of hunger and poverty in the region, and the gardens provide students with nutrient-dense food and outdoor activity.
School Gardens in the Gorge:
- Wy’east Middle school
- Mid-Valley Elementary school
- Klahre House of the Next Door Inc.
- Corbett Arts Program with Spanish
- White Salmon Community Youth Center
- Columbia High School
- DIG, The Dalles Imagination Garden
- Wahtonka
- Hood River Valley High school
- Westside Elementary school
- Parkdale Elementary school
Gardens in the News:
- 11/30/2012- HAHRC Beats: local kids go crazy over kale
- 4/19/2014- Garden Symposium at HRMS
- 6/18/2015- Planting the seeds of good health
- 4/28/2015- HRVHS Garden Symposium brings students together