Garden education impacts over 11,000 Central Coast youth
Non-Profit One Cool Earth partners with 23 public schools
– Local non-profit One Cool Earth partnered with 23 public schools on the Central Coast during the 2021/22 school year. With over 11,000 students participating in their “Earth Genius Program” that teaches science, nutrition, and wellness in school gardens, their impact was far-reaching.
This past school year, their team of garden educators taught 2,133 hands-on lessons by using school gardens as living laboratories that bridge the gap between textbooks and the real world. They also served 20,773 taste tests which exposed students to whole, fresh foods and helped encourage healthy eating. The families and wider communities at these schools also participated in the program, ensuring that the garden is a place for everyone.
The nonprofit hosted 46 garden workdays where families come together to get their hands in the soil and care for the garden. Additionally, it hosted 13 family cooking nights where students and families took home a recipe-kit, logged on, and cooked together from their homes with the instruction of a garden educator.
With agreements to partner with five additional SLO County schools in the coming year, One Cool Earth says it aims to make school gardens a staple at Central Coast elementary schools.
