Making School Gardens Accessible

Green Space, Park Access, and Trees

Expand existing project, program, or initiative

As part of GSF's larger mission to increase Angelenos' access to safe, green spaces, we recognize the urgent need to renovate our school gardens to ensure accessibility for all people, regardless of age, disability, or other factors. At each school site, all 2,300 of the Kinder-5th grade students we serve participate in our hands-on, Seed to Table program. Unlike an enrichment program, our classes are held during the student's regular instructional day. Each student spends a minimum of 120 minutes in the garden a month. We currently serve a large population of special needs students. As educators, we've discovered firsthand the need to improve our gardens' accessibility to better serve our students and dismantle the legacy of ableism within the gardening community. Historically, the field of environmental education has prioritized the experiences of able-bodied individuals, creating a legacy of "eco-ableism," a significant issue our project seeks to address directly.

To enhance our garden's accessibility and address the historic legacy of abelism within the larger gardening community, GSF will raise 84 existing garden beds to ADA-compliance and add 10 37-gallon elevated compost bins to our sites. By raising our beds and compost bins, GSF can offer more Angelinos safe access to green space and the joys of gardening. 5 of 10 school sites are currently outfitted with ADA-compliant beds. Below please find the number of beds we will raise at the 4 remaining sites: -24th St: 24 -Gardner: 15 -Grand View: 15 -Rockdale: 10 -Wilshire Crest: 20 Statement of Need: Our flagship garden, 24th St., was built in 2005. Like all our gardens, 24th St. was designed collaboratively by parents, neighbors, and school leaders to reduce the amount of heat-generating asphalt on campus and increase students' access to green spaces, experiential learning, and nutritious foods. Our schools are located in historically underserved areas of L.A. Across all 10 sites, 75% of our students qualify for free or reduced lunch, and most live in areas designated as "park poor" by a recent UCLA report. Our school gardens represent students and their families' primary access to nature. At sites like 24th St, we also host 75-100 volunteers a month from across the city, making the site an invaluable hub for folks to build community and share knowledge. To best serve our community, we must that ensure our gardens are not only accessible but also welcoming to all people.

Our garden renovation project will directly increase the amount of accessible green spaces for Angelinos while also helping dismantle the legacy of ableism within the larger environmental education field. Once our project is completed, all 10 GSF school gardens will feature ADA-compliant beds, offering our students, their families, and the surrounding communities access to a combined 3 acres of accessible green space. As leaders in the L.A. school gardening community, we believe that the successful completion of our renovation project will set a powerful precedent for the future as well as encourage educators and other nonprofits to prioritize accessibility in their garden and curriculum designs. It is our ultimate goal to see fully accessible gardens at every LAUSD school site, and we believe our project will serve as a replicable model for years to come.

GSF will raise 84 existing garden beds to ADA compliance. Our school gardens are not only treasured community resources but also serve as the base of operations for our programming. CORE PROGRAMS -Seed to Table: Students visit the garden every other week, alternating between garden and cooking classes. -Cafeteria to Compost: At lunch tables students sort unwanted items from their meals and either redistribute them to other students or compost them. -Farmers Markets: We host free, on-campus Markets 2x/a month at 24th St, sharing an avg.of 2K lbs. of produce with 50+ families per market. MEASURING OUR IMPACT: We use a pre-and-post survey with Kinder and 4th graders, along with a sampling of teachers and families, to gauge our impact. We also annually track the number of volunteers hosted, the amount of food waste diverted from landfills, the pounds of food redistributed, and the opportunities we've created to share our work via workshops, tours, and meetings with local officials.