Hello Cortney,
I am a volunteer coordinator of a garden program at an inner city school in Dayton, OH.
This is my 3rd year. My program is a little different as it's called THE TEA PROJECT and focuses
on tea gardening but there also is a hoop house and lots of raised beds for veggies and such.
It is VERY HARD to get volunteers on a regular basis and with the skills needed. The hoop house
needs access to water and an irrigation system and, of course, all the other things.
At my school there is a long established community services agency that partners with the
school and runs an after school program and a summer camp. They have PAID staff and one
person that takes care of some of the garden needs but also is responsible for running the after
school program, writing grants and so much more that her time to actually maintain the garden
beds and create outdoor curriculum for teachers (my dream!) is limited. I am going to listen in to
the USDA grant lecture coming up to help us write grants. These are monies that I believe could
be used for staff and training and big implementation needs (water access). I could possible run
the grant through the Community Agency and avoid lots of difficulty with money in a public system.
Do you have a Community Services agency in your area? Is there an inner city farm? These
make great partners and may solve part of the lack. Check out the USDA grants! Good luck!
Janet
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janet Lawson
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Original Message:
Sent: 12-02-2022 01:48:54 PM
From: Cortney Dillon
Subject: School based garden coordinator
Hi All,
I am in Northern VA and have been volunteering as the school garden coordinator at my daughter's elementary school for the last 6 years. When I started there was no one running it and now it is a beautiful, useable space. There are many volunteers that come out to help maintain it and more and more teachers come out with their class to use the space every year. However, there hasn't been anyone else, volunteer or teacher, who has been willing to take on part of the garden responsibilities. I think this is very common in school gardens and why the success of them comes and goes every few years depending on the volunteers. I would like to change this in our county, or at least at our school, and am looking for ways to fund a site based school garden coordinator.
Here are my questions:
1. Do any of you work (as in get paid) at a public school as a school garden coordinator? If so, is this your only responsibility or is it tied to another job?
2. How is your job funded?
3. How many hours/week is the position?
4. How often do you work with classes vs. maintain the garden?
Thank you so much! I'm looking forward to hearing from others,
Cortney
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Cortney Dillon
3015804186
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