Keep Gardening Going at BUSD

Dear BUSD Community,

Did you know that BUSD is facing a $9 million shortfall leading to cuts in some of our important programs like the Gardening & Cooking Program? Please donate here and spread the word so that we can raise $60K to maintain our fabulous gardening program.

The Good News:

Fortunately, the Gardening & Cooking Program has worked hard to maintain funding for program operations and is only $60K short of that $1.25 million minimum needed to maintain current programming and the student-facing garden and cooking positions at all 18 BUSD school sites.

The gardening curriculum provides critical education covering topics including: math and science in the garden, seeds, pollinators, food systems, habitats, cycles in nature, weather, plants, soil, water, nutrition, compost, and food justice.

See the Gardening & Cooking Program in Action:

https://vimeo.com/355918461

School Gardens are Proven to Improve Academic Outcomes:

"Students who engage in school gardens show significant gains in overall grade point average, specifically in math and science, and expand their ways of thinking or habits of mind to include curiosity, flexibility, open-mindedness, informed skepticism, creativity, and critical thinking." (Cooperative Extension Fact Sheet, Rutgers University, 2013)

Students who participated in garden-based learning programs showed higher test scores in science, and increased food knowledge (Blair, 2009; Klemmer, Waliczek, and Zajicek, 2005; Ratcliffe, Merrigan, Rogers, and Goldberg, 2009; Smith and Motsenbocker, 2005).

Garden-based learning has been linked with an increased willingness to try a variety of vegetables (Ratcliffe et al., 2009).

PLEASE GIVE TODAY AND SPREAD THE WORD!