Shining a light on school gardens

When youngsters understand the importance of food and where it comes from, they’re engaged with the natural world around them. When they understand how to cultivate their own food and provide for themselves and their communities, they’re engaged with their own futures.

This is what drives the Seed Keeper Project, an annual initiative to recognize and honor public, private and home schools that provide students with educational gardening opportunities.

Created by Kerrie Rosenthal and Carol Niec, co-founders of the Seed Keeper Company, the project is now in its sixth year and has recognized more than 300 school gardening programs across the nation to date. The project collects nominations through social media every year beginning in February, selecting one winner per state. Winners are sent a certificate of recognition and one of the company’s signature Seed Keepers — a tackle box-like container and tool kit helps gardeners label, track and organize their planting stock.

After the company began in 2009, Rosenthal says the Seed Keeper Project came about as a way for them to give back to the gardening community. Niec adds that recognizing the efforts of school gardens is an important effort, as the gardens provide such a valuable educational and skill-building experience.

“When (students) start a garden, it just takes off – all the sudden it’s a learning center, then they supplement their school lunches and give to the community around them,” Niec says. “Then they become entrepreneurs at farmers’ markets. It’s just an amazing thing.”

Starting this year, the Seed Keeper Project also provides winners with a copy of Garden-Pedia, an A-Z guide by Maria Zampini and Pamela Bennett that provides insightful gardening advice while breaking down the jargon and complexities of the hobby.

“It’s a great little garden primer, it debunks all the phrasing and things you might not know,” Rosenthal says. “[The authors] had jumped on board this year, and every school gets one of these books, too. So, it continues to grow. That was our goal from the beginning — we really wanted it to grow, to be the rock in the pond.”

Involvement in the project has grown to include not only authors, local leaders and school officials, but college extensions and regional independent garden centers have taken notice of school gardening programs as well. These partners, encouraged by the recognition of the Seed Keeper Program, boost attendance and community support for the student gardens.

“We are enormous proponents of independent garden centers,” Rosenthal says. “A lot of times, garden centers become involved in these school gardens and have done great things and have backed them up.”

Although proud of the impact their project has had on schools across the country after six years, Rosenthal and Niec look forward to even greater growth in coming years. To them, all the effort is worth the benefit of getting kids and young adults interested in the outdoors.

“We’re the real winners in this, because we look at these kids and the educators and what they’re doing and they’re our future, they’re our hope,” Rosenthal says. “So, we appreciate what they’re doing to help take care of the earth, to learn about the importance of growing your own food.”

“We’re looking forward to next year, to more nominations, to more people getting involved,” Niec says. “More people get involved every year, it just grows exponentially. It’s a lot of fun.”