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.

Despite the temperatures dropping more and more as we move into December, our FoodCorps Service Members are still getting their students out to their gardens to prepare the garden for winter! Students are harvesting the final warm season crops, protecting hardier crops with Agribon, and mulching their beds for the upcoming season. Soon, our FoodCorps Service Members will be crafting creative indoor lessons by bringing the garden and nutritious food into the classroom! 

We were excited to receive and read all of the applications for the Newark Grows School Garden Mini-Grant sponsored by the Nourishing Newark initiative of the City of Newark's Office of Sustainability. Schools all over Newark are getting students outside to improve the environment, grow food, and get their hands dirty doing engaged science learning. We received more than twice as many applications for this year's grants over 2023. If your school applied for a grant, please be patient while we carefully review applications and assign awards.  We strive to support ALL Newark schools nurturing school gardens through our workshops, seed and seedling shares, and technical assistance. 

These Family Programs are great to enjoy with a young person, but you can join in on your own for an informal professional development session. They are an opportunity to see ways our environmental educators encourage kids to develop wonder, make observations, construct understanding, and engage in science conversations.  You can also learn some cool crafts, healthy recipes, and ways to incorporate more hands-on, engaged learning.

How to Prep Your School Garden for Winter Break

Virtual

Thursday, December 14th @ 3:00-3:45pm

In Georgia school gardens are able to stay active through most of winter.  Even in our somewhat colder climate, many of the tips from this workshop should help to make the most of season extension techniques to grow as long as possible. This is also a nice opportunity to meet up with school garden advocates in another state to learn about what is happening down there. 

REGISTER HERE

Second Saturday Family Adventures

In-Person

Saturday, December 9th @ 10:30-12pm

The cold never stops us from enjoying the outdoors! Join us as explore the changes that season brings. We will be getting busy crafting gifts from the garden for family and friends (including 4-legged ones!)

REGISTER HERE

39th Annual ANJEE Winter Research Symposium & Conference

In-Person

Thursday, January 11th - 12th, 2024

The College of New Jersey (Ewing, NJ)

The Alliance for New Jersey Environmental Education (ANJEE) presents its 39th Annual Winter Symposium & Conference to be held in-person, focusing on the powerful role of collaboration and networks in moving the field of environmental education forward.  A full day of workshops for formal, non-formal and higher education teachers where our Program Manager, Patrick Evans, will be hosting an "Accessible Gardening for All" workshop that will dive into designing your garden programs to be inclusive and accessible for students of all abilities! 

REGISTER 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.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

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

Natalie McGrath is one of our 1st Year FoodCorps Service Members who is serving at Thirteenth Avenue School and Mt. Vernon School in Newark, NJ. Natalie immediately dove right into service with her students, and quickly became known as a "child magnet" with her classes. She has recently been accepted to be a mentor to 5 middle school students at the school, where to plans to integrate them into larger garden projects. The connection she has formed with her students in such a short amount of time is amazing and we are very grateful for all her incredible work! 

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!

In 1996 Bonnie Plants initiated the 3rd Grade Cabbage Program in Alabama, with a mission to inspire a love of vegetable gardening in young people, teach kids where their food comes from, and grow our next generation of gardeners. By 2002 the program grew to include the 48 contiguous states. Each year, Bonnie sends more than one million free cabbage plants to 3rd Grade classrooms across the country. Click here to learn more. 

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! 

How did the farmer fix the hole in her clothes?

A cabbage patch!

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.

By simply being in the garden, kids can be able to nourish their minds, bodies, and souls! 

Click Here for Mindfulness Lesson from KidsGardening

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.