Mission: Promote and support healthy and sustainable lifestyles, youth development, community involvement and self-reliance in our schools and community by teaching children and adults how to grow and prepare healthy food. 

Valley Springs Elementary school has had a garden program for six years.  The Valley Springs School and Community Garden Project was started in the spring of 2012 to expand the existing school garden progam and create a demonstration garden for other school and community gardens in our region.  It has been a true community effort that has established to following goals to meet the needs of our students and community members.

Goals

• Teach about the importance of healthy food choices

• Be an academic and experiential learning lab for our school and community

• Have a year-round organic garden that produces food for the school salad bar, classroom cooking lessons, garden lessons, Food Bank donations, community members and a student market

• Teach sustainable and organic gardening/farming practices

• Increase the availability of fresh fruits and vegetables

• Teach nutrition and cooking lessons to students and families

• Provide physical activity opportunities

• Establish a Farm to School Program at our site and in our district – High Quality Local Food

• Provide environmentally-based academic learning opportunities for our teachers and students

• Build community partnerships and systems that can be a model for other school gardens

• Offer workshops for teachers and community members on how to create and sustain school and community gardens (CSYSG)

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Engaging Children

• Children from Valley Springs Elementary, Kid’s Place, Head Start and the Youth Center will use the garden as an outdoor learning lab.  Master Garden and community volunteers, teachers, parents and high school students will use the garden to provide hands-on instruction in sustainable garden practices and environmental and nutrition education to these students. Our Master Garden volunteer and Garden Coordinator will provide standards based, cross curricular activities during school hours and in after school programs. Students will eat what they grow.

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Engaging Families and Community

• The Resource Connection and UC Cooperative Extension Central Sierra will use the garden for youth and adult nutrition and garden education classes.  The local church and other community groups can use the garden to produce food and educate families on how to grow their own gardens.

 

2012/2013 was a very busy and productive year for our project. We have taken a 100‘ x 140’ empty lot, that was filled with weeds, and turned it into a beautiful learning lab for our entire community to benefit from. Our vision is becoming a reality. 

One of the unique features of this garden is that it is both a school and community garden.  We use the garden during the school day as a learning lab for our students, and use it after school as a resource and learning space for our local community members.  This last fall we grew over 1000 pounds of produce.  The produce was used in our classrooms, the school cafeteria, by community members who volunteered time on the project and donated to the local food pantry. 

Over 300 students and community members have participated in the garden this past year.  We look forward to this number growing each year.  Students, parents, staff, the Valley Springs Youth Center,The Resource Connection, UCCECS, church groups, pre-schools and the Boy Scouts, among others, have all been active participants in the garden vision and construction.

Now that the garden building phase is nearing completion, we will be focusing on the programming phase of the garden.  We will be offering workshops, cooking lessons, back yard gardening classes and having many events in the garden space each year.  We will be using the garden to hold “Creating and Sustaining Your School Garden” (CSYSG) workshops to give others in our area the tools to build their own gardens.  The Resource Connection Food Bank, Head Start, UC Cooperative Extension Central Sierra and First 5 Calaveras are already planning activities and setting dates for using this space for their programs.  Our local church is using food from the garden in their food pantry, and local families are volunteering and using food from the garden as part of their weekly menu.  We have kids that are helping their parents start gardens and asking them to buy more fresh fruits and vegetables at the grocery store.

Community Partners: (* indicates financial sponsors)

• Valley Springs Elementary School

• Calaveras Unified School District

• Calaveras UC Master Gardeners

• Valley Springs Youth Center***

• The Resource Connection – Food Bank

• The Resource Connection - Head Start

• UC Cooperative Extension Central Sierra

• Valley Springs Elementary PTO***

• West Calaveras Rotary***

• Tri-Dam Lions***

• FoCuS

• Outer Aisle Foods

• Kid’s Place (After School Program)

• CUSD Education Foundation***

• First 5 Calaveras***

• Community UMC – Valley Springs

• Calaveras County Farm Bureau

• Slow Food Calaveras

 

240 Pine St

Valley Springs, CA 95252

United States​