Rising to the Challenge: Online Lessons & Garden Kits

Like most organizations, H.O.P.E. Gardens had to adjust to changes brought on by Covid-19. When we learned that some schools were going fully remote and outside organizations were restricted from offering their programs in person, we had a decision to make: could we adapt to this new challenge or should we wait out the storm? The choice was an easy one for us: We care deeply for our students and want to keep connections and provide opportunities for them, whether they are learning at home or at the school building, and so we learned to adapt.

One of our goals for school garden education is for children and families to start planting their own home gardens. To adapt to the loss of time spent in the school garden, we were able to provide 400 deck and potted gardens to our student’s families. We adapted from our twice a month in-person programming to providing remote lessons that included hands on experiential kits.

Our October kit included a pumpkin, paints/markers and a lesson plan on seed saving and of course, baking pumpkin seeds. We continue to provide remote kits and lessons and will throughout the school year.

We are hopeful that we will be able to once again provide in-person gardening lessons this spring.

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