There’s a certain kind of magic that happens when you watch a child plant a seed.
As they bury their hands in the dirt you know their imagination is running rampant. What’s even more special is when a child watches that seed sprout, grow and evolve into something they can hold in their hands.
Rooted has a vision of people growing and thriving in healthy, equitable and sustainable communities. What better place to nurture these visions than in the minds of children?
Rooted’s communications director Renata Solan and farm to school director Erica Krug share more on the Madison-based organization, its mission and its programming.
How and when did Rooted get started?
Renata: Rooted evolved from a desire to merge the strengths of two vibrant Madison organizations — Center for Resilient Cities and Community GroundWorks — which were both committed to collaborations so that people can grow and thrive in healthy, equitable and sustainable neighborhoods. Our two organizations, one embedded in Madison’s Northside, the other in Madison’s South Side, had long collaborated with each other since both organizations worked to create opportunities for and greater access to food, land and intergenerational learning. January 1, 2020, was the first day that Center for Resilient Cities and Community GroundWorks became the single organization known as Rooted.
What is the Wisconsin School Garden Network and how did it begin?
Renata: The Wisconsin School Garden Network supports the growing school and youth garden movement in our state. We offer support for new and existing gardens at schools, early care and education centers, community centers, botanical gardens, after-school sites and anywhere that is connecting kids with gardening and growing. Our goal is to create a place where educators, parents and students from all cultures and socio-economic spheres can find resources that address their community’s specific needs.
Our website has a searchable library with hundreds of resources from curricular materials to creative ideas for music installations to establishing a garden committee. We also offer free workshops and free technical assistance to anyone in Wisconsin. Hundreds of educators across the country have participated in our free online course for educators, Teaching in Nature’s Classroom, which we are thrilled to be offering in both English and Spanish. We also have a monthly newsletter with more than three thousand subscribers where we share resources, funding opportunities and stories to support Wisconsin’s entire youth garden education community.
The Wisconsin School Garden Network began in April 2016 thanks to a $1 million five-year grant from the UW School of Medicine and Public Health Partnership Program. This was preceded by the Wisconsin School Garden Initiative, also funded by a Wisconsin Partnership Program grant, which launched in 2013 as a collaboration of partners to support youth garden education across the state. Wisconsin School Garden Network is a partnership of Rooted and the UW Madison Environmental Design Lab.
How many school gardens have been planted since the launch of Wisconsin School Garden Network?
Renata: We have an interactive map of youth garden education sites. This map had two hundred gardens when the network launched in 2016. We now have more than eight hundred documented youth garden sites on the Wisconsin School Garden Network Map. This is more documented youth garden sites than any state in the country! The map includes information such as when the garden was established, where the garden is located, who the garden serves and who can be contacted about the garden. In this way, the map creates opportunities for youth garden educators across Wisconsin to connect with and learn from each other.
How does having access to a school garden impact the students?
Renata: There are so many incredible benefits to school gardens. In the last year and a half, we have seen such growth in the movement nationally as educators and families have looked for more ways to learn together, in groups, while staying safe during the pandemic. School gardens create opportunities for interdisciplinary learning in everything from math and science to art, literacy and environmental education. And beyond academics, too. Gardens are an innovative way to introduce students of all ages with nutrition education. Growing evidence shows that when children grow their own food, they’re more enthusiastic about eating fresh fruits and vegetables. Gardens also expose children to agricultural practices and concepts, provide space for spending time outdoors and in nature, and create opportunities for physical activity during curricular lessons. They’re also a place where intergenerational learning can happen when families are involved in a school’s garden program.
School gardens are growing the next generation of stewards. Children’s time in the garden builds their sense of self-efficacy. They become caretakers of their plants and their schoolyards. Through the process of tending a garden and growing food, young people feel a connection to place, a sense of belonging and a vision of what they can do with their own hands. There are so many examples of this from so many programs across the state. (You can find many stories on our website.) The impact gardens can have was on display for us this past May when we celebrated the third annual Wisconsin School Garden Day, which Governor Tony Evers has declared annually since 2019 as a day to celebrate the people and programs making Wisconsin a leader in youth garden education. It’s a very special day when programs across the state share about the many ways that kids are experiencing garden-based learning. Every year, a highlight of the day is seeing elected officials such as mayors, state senators and state representatives visit gardens and learn from the students. This year, Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes visited Lake View Elementary School in Madison, along with Senator Melissa Agard and Representative Samba Baldeh. The students were the experts when they were paired with the special visitors and together they planted vegetables in the school’s garden. It was the kids’ garden, and they knew just what to do.
What other types of youth programs do you offer?
Renata: We offer a variety of in-person youth programming, some of which has been put on hold during the COVID-19 pandemic. We offer field trips to school and community groups at the Troy Kids’ Garden and Goodman Youth Farm. We also offer family field trips, which we’ve been able to continue this year by limiting group size. Before the pandemic, we loved hosting Troy Farm Camp, a day camp where kids could plant, explore, harvest, eat and play.
We also do a lot of garden and culinary programming at Badger Rock Middle School for students who attend school there, such as gardening and cooking classes and we have a youth employment program at Badger Rock Neighborhood Center. Since the start of the pandemic, we also started offering virtual gardening and cooking classes for families to enjoy and learn from together. These are live streamed on our Badger Rock Neighborhood Center our Rooted Facebook pages, so anyone is welcome to watch and chat with us. We also offer youth programming through Madison School & Community Recreation (MSCR) and One City Elementary School.
What do field trips entail?
Erica: We currently offer family field trips at Goodman Youth Farm and Troy Kids Garden — both in Madison — which feature hands-on outdoor activities for caregivers and kids of all ages: Harvest and cook a healthy snack, plant seedlings, explore the worm compost bins or create outdoor art. Unique experiences include meeting our honey bees and packing fresh produce to donate to the local food pantry.
What’s the best part of seeing children learn in the garden?
Renata: For me, it’s the sense of wonder. I love getting to see the garden anew through kids’ eyes. We start with a small, oblong seed and in just a few months we’re picking dozens of spiny cucumbers off luscious green vines. Kids never seem to lose excitement around that magic.
Erica: I love the hands-on opportunities that learning in the garden provides. Any child could sit inside a classroom and learn how to measure something with a ruler, but take this learning outside and measure the growth of your plants in the garden and this lesson suddenly comes alive with real-world applications. Are our plants growing? How fast are they growing? What do they need to grow? I also love the fact that the garden can be a great equalizer. I remember when one of my third-grade students taught me how to gently spread out the roots of a seedling that we were about to plant in our garden bed — I had never done that before! Anyone can be the teacher in the garden.
How can community members get involved?
Renata: There are so many ways to get involved with Rooted and Wisconsin School Garden Network! The best thing to do is visit our website, where you can explore everything we have going on and make a donation to support our programming. One of our favorite ways to meet community members and supporters is at our Community Meals. They’re family-friendly, pay-what-you-can with a suggested donation and often have live music.
Our Rooted and Badger Rock Neighborhood Center Facebook pages are very active and often have live events where you can learn about gardening, cooking and what’s happening at our farms. Wisconsin School Garden Network also has a Facebook page.
Youth garden educators and early care workers should check out the For Educators section on our Rooted website for tons of resources and activity ideas.
We’re always looking for volunteers to help out, especially during the growing season when we can always use extra hands planting, weeding and harvesting. And if you want to learn even more about growing food and youth garden programs, you can apply for our training program.
– Megan Kulick
Photos courtesy of Rooted.
Megan Kulick is a journalism graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. She worked in the nonprofit field for seven years before becoming a stay-at-home mom. She and her husband and their daughter and son live in Mount Horeb. She is always in pursuit of a great trail to run, a good book to read and the best place to find a good iced coffee.