Welcome everyone 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 will be more than happy to help.

Our 4 FoodCorps Service Members have been working very hard planning their Fall Harvest Festivals at their respective schools! Students have been having a blast getting out to the school garden for their festivals and enjoying all the activities we have planned for them. These Farm to School events features a local taste test of 3 varieties of apples, garden scavenger hunts, worm wonders, soil exploration, and so much more! 

Grant Writing & Fundraising Workshop

In-Person / Virtual

Tuesday, November 14th @ 4:00-5:00pm

Join us as we walk you through the steps to help secure funding for your school garden programs! In person and virtual! Zoom link will be provided before workshop.

RSVP HERE

School Food Forest Webinar

Virtual

Wednesday, November 29th @ 1:00-2:15pm

Dive into the edible and abundant world of food forests at schools with speakers from the Education Fund in Miami, Florida and Growing Healthy Kids in the East Bay Area of Northern California. They'll cover everything from design and planning to implementation and maintenance of this garden design rooted in permaculture, regenerative agriculture and native foraging and foodways.

RSVP HERE

Second Saturday Family Adventures

In-Person

Saturday, November 11th @ 10:30-12pm

Join us at for Second Saturday Family Adventures as we build a city together. We will all put on our Urban Planner Hats as we construct our very own Cardboard City!

RSVP HERE

Growing School Gardens Summit

In-Person

Thursday, March 14th - March 18th, 2024

San Diego, California

A national conference focused entirely on school gardening, the summit will unite 600 educators and leaders to share innovations and harness our collective power for future change. The Growing School Gardens Summit is hosted by the Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation in Partnership with Life Lab and the School Garden Support Organization (SGSO) Network.

RSVP HERE

Check out this school year's Newark Grows School Garden Workshop schedule below!

This year, we are hosting 4 FoodCorps Service Members to serve at 7 Newark Public Schools as they teach students about nutrition and gardening through hands-on lessons. Students at Lincoln, Mt. Vernon, Avon, Hawthorne, McKinley, Thirteenth, and Harriet Tubman are blessed to have these amazing FoodCorps Service Members at their schools. It has only been 2 months, and they are already making such big impacts in their school community!

FoodCorps’ Food Operators & Leaders of Color in Schools (FOLCS, pronounced like “folks”) community provides opportunities for AmeriCorps service members, alumni, and school nutrition professionals, as well as those aspiring to careers in this field, to connect around leadership development, mentorship, and networking. FOLCS was launched in 2020, and formerly called the BIMPOC (Black, Indigenous, Multiracial, and People of Color) School Nutrition Leadership (SNL) Network. 

Sign up to join FOLCS here!

Every year, Jersey Fresh celebrates the Garden State's fruits and vegetables through the Jersey Tastes Harvest of the Month! For the month of November, we celebrate Squash! 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! 

Farm to school events are happening all over the country this month aimed at bringing fresh food to students' plates. And, after a decline in nutrition education in U.S. schools in recent decades, there's new momentum, to weave food and cooking into the curriculum again. Hear from kids as they discuss the impact of nutrition education. Read article here!

The Coalition for Healthy Food in Newark Schools (HFiNS) is thrilled to announce its official launch, bolstered by a generous grant of $3.8M from Novo Nordisk. This funding spans over the next three years and is dedicated to improving the Newark school food system with community participation and input. Greater Newark Conservancy is serving as the lead organization in this initiative, with this award representing the largest grant awarded to the agency in its 36-year history. HFiNS steering committee includes several other agencies that serve Newark, including Common Market, FoodCorps NJ, Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, RWJ Barnabas Health, United Way of Greater Newark, and the Urban Agriculture Cooperative. All work together with the shared goal of transforming Newark’s school food system; these partners are committed to ensuring every student has access to fresh, healthy, and culturally relevant foods. Click here to learn more! 

Who helped the butternut squash cross the road??

A crossing gourd!

Source: Wisconsin School Garden Network

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.

We are always staying busy at Greater Newark Conservancy, and it only gets busier during the fall! Whether its hosting outdoor field trips in our Outdoor Learning Center, hosting our annual fall harvest festivals at school gardens, or assisting with a student-run farm stand; we make sure our impact runs deep through these students. 

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.