Welcome to our monthly E-Newsletter supporting a network of school garden advocates. We will keep you updated on the latest news and work being done across school gardens programs here in Newark, New Jersey and the best resources from across the country.   

Looking for a specific resource? Interested in having your own resources published? Reach out to us to discuss more at pevans@citybloom.org and we would be more than happy to help.

Family Fun in the Kitchen

In-Person

Saturday, April 15th @ 11:00am                                                                                                                                   

Join us for Chef Afi's Family Fun in the Kitchen! This month, we will be making (and tasting!) delicious Caramelized Onion & Mushroom Naan Bread Pizza! Register below to reserve your spot to learn personally from Chef Afi. All ingredients are supplied and included in the registration price.

RSVP HERE

District-Led School Garden Programs Part 1: Organization & Management

Virtual

Wednesday, April 19th @ 2:00pm

This webinar will focus on the organization and management of a district-wide school garden program with examples from three districts across the country of different sizes. We will cover district school garden guides, multiple tiered systems of support (MTSS), and funding streams specifically for school districts.

RSVP HERE

Early Sprouts School Garden Workshop

In-Person / Virtual 

Wednesday, April 19th @ 4:00 PM

Celebrate the Month of the Young Child and learn about working with gardeners and eaters ages 3 to 6. Learn the tips and tricks from experienced early educators. 

RSVP HERE

City Green Earth Day Festival

In-Person

Saturday, April 22nd @ 11:00am                                                                                                                                    Celebrate Earth Day at City Green's Earth Day Festival at Eastside Park! Join them for nature crafts, gardening lessons, giveaways, and so much more! Free to attend.                                                                                                Click here for more information!

City Green School Garden Symposium

In-Person

Saturday, May 6th @ 8:30am-2:00pm                                                                                                                          Join City Green's School Garden Symposium! Learn the tips & tricks for building and sustaining successful school gardens with City Green's School Grounds team and experienced local teachers and administrators.

RSVP HERE

Check out our Events Section above to learn more about our upcoming Community Plant Giveaway this Sunday, April 2nd!

Check out what the Seeds of Change Grantees have been up to the past year in 2022. Looking forward to another successful year for these Newark schools! 

FoodCorps is a non-profit organization that believes every child, in every school, should experience the joy and power of food. That work starts in classrooms, cafeterias, and school gardens—and it starts with our FoodCorps Service Member. We host three FoodCorps Service Members at Greater Newark Conservancy; Bridgette Byrd (pictured above), Julia Sienkiewicz (not pictured), and Pablo Verissimo (not pictured). They are doing amazing work in their schools teaching lessons, running events, maintaining school gardens, nourishing students with healthy food and creating engaging campaigns for students to lead. We could not make such a heavy impact in schools with our FoodCorps Service Members! 

Every year, Jersey Fresh celebrates the Garden State's fruits and vegetables through the Jersey Tastes Harvest of the Month! For the month of April, we celebrate Spinach! Click this link to check out the activity sheet for the month. This sheet includes videos, fun facts, recipes, and activities for all ages from Pre-K all the way through High School! 

What do you call an angry pea?

“A grum-pea!”

Source: Wisconsin School Garden Network - Madeleine Fischer

Register your school garden to be a part of our Newark School Garden Support Network and see where other school gardens are located near you!

Interested in bringing your students to the Outdoor Learning Center at Greater Newark Conservancy to experience the joy of nature-based education? Fill out this Field Trip Interest Form! We offer a variety of field trip programs that will spark the interest of any youth. Whether they are learning about urban habitats, diving into the world of bugs and insects, or seeing how worms can break down our food into a valuable soil amendment, your students will leave our site with a host of knowledge! For more information reach out to soleary@citybloom.org.

Dear Volunteers,

We are currently looking for volunteers who can assist with separating seed packets and potting up seedlings for distribution to Plot-It-Fresh members and the community.

We are appreciative of any time that can be devoted to our mission!

To sign up, register at this link here.

Every single Pre-K and 1st grade student in Newark will be taking a field trip to our Outdoor Learning Center until the end of the school year! Currently, we are hosting our Urban Habitats field trips with the 1st graders, teaching them about worms, birds, plant adaptations, and urban mammals!

Students have had an amazing time at Greater Newark Conservancy, not wanting to leave at the end of the program and telling us how much they loved their field trip! 

The work that we do would not be possible without the generosity of our donors. While we had to put some of our on-site programs temporarily on hold during the COVID-19 crisis, we are back to normal operations and ramping up a number of programs and activities at our Outdoor Learning Center, the Hawthorne Avenue Urban Farm, school partner gardens, as well as various virtual workshops.