Transforming School Gardens into Production Gardens

Food insecurity and access to basic needs

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

Every day 1 million Angelinos experience food insecurity. Among low-income households, hunger rates have steadily increased over the last decade. The rising cost of groceries combined with a lack of local full-service grocery stores has made food access a significant struggle for the students and families we serve. Across all 10 of our school garden sites, 75% of students live in food insecure households. We believe that our school gardens hold incredible untapped potential to grow more food to feed school families and school neighbors. By expanding production farming at our two largest school garden sites, 24th Street in West Adams and Wilshire Crest in Mid-City, we tap into 2 acres of growing potential! Produce grown in our gardens will be shared with school families through biweekly, free Farmers Markets. Because our produce will be shared directly with student families through the school, our project will remove significant time, cost, and transportation barriers to food access.

For 18 years, GSF has successfully grown herbs, fruits, and vegetables at school gardens across L.A. as part of our Seed to Table educational program. In that time, we’ve witnessed rates of hunger increase among our school communities. Our project aims to improve local food access for 3,200 youth and their families by using existing school gardens to grow food. To accomplish our goal, we will: 1) Renovate the existing .5-acre garden at Wilshire Crest Elementary by adding 10 raised ADA-compliant beds and 5 in-ground rows. GSF will also work with consultants from Cerca Cultivation, a GSF partner since Spring 2024, to create a production and harvesting plan and host ongoing training for school site staff. 2) Expand current food production capacities at our 1-acre flagship garden, 24th Street Elementary. In Spring 2024, as part of a grant from Freedom Farms, GSF added 15 ADA-compliant beds and in-ground rows to create growing space and GSF staff received 20 hours of training from Cerca to prepare them to begin growing this fall.
3) Create a replicable model for other school gardens to design and implement their own food sharing initiatives, including creating a free, downloadable guidebook for educators and administrators. During the upcoming 2024-25 school year, as part of this project, we aim to increase our growing capacity by 500 lbs of produce per month, significantly improving local food access for some of L.A’s most vulnerable youth.

Our work bridges the nutritional and educational divide in LA by using school gardens to provide youth and their families with nutritious food and the skills to cook and grow it. Through our Farmers Markets, we share 9K lbs of donated produce with 275 families each month. Due to the markets’ popularity, we see the urgent need to share more food. Transforming our 2 largest gardens into production farms unlocks 2-acres of growing power, allowing us to share an additional 500 lbs/month. Students will help us plant as part of their regular Seed to Table classes. In 2024-25, we’ll also host 3 family workshops at all GSF schools: 1) countertop gardening; 2) nutrition; 3) composting. After the 1st year of growing, we’ll expand production at 2 more gardens. By seizing the potential of school gardens for production and education, we put more nutritious food in the bellies of families and empower them with the tools to cook and grow their own food, creating intergenerational, systemic change.

We will maintain rigorous data analysis practices to track the following: amount of seedlings purchased; amount of edible food planted; amount of edible plants harvested and shared in lbs; method of produce dissemination; amount of individuals and school families impacted by distribution; documenting and tracking gardening-related issues ( soil health, pests abatement and irrigation); qualitative data, including surveys of school community members. Data collection will be overseen by the Garden Assistant who will collaborate with the 24th Street and Wilshire Crest Garden Educators. The Garden Assistant will be managed by the GSF Programs Assistant
A Proven Record of Growing Success: GSF developed and fine-tuned our data collection methods during a 1-year Production Farming Pilot Program initiated in Spring 2020 as a response to covid-related schools closures. From 5/20 - 5/21, we grew and shared 150 lbs. of leafy greens, 161 lbs. of veggies, 52 lbs. of fruit, and 430 herb bundles.