Restart the KCK Organic Teaching Garden

We have built organic, raised bed gardens, directly on the school grounds of three Middle Schools: Rosedale, Argentine and Carl B. We have built organic, raised bed gardens, directly on the school grounds of three Middle Schools: Rosedale, Argentine and Carl B. Bruce and four Elementary Schools: Frank Ruston, Banneker, Quindaro, and M E Pearson, in Kansas City, Kansas and School District #500. For 21 years Mark Manning has served as co-founder and Coordinator/Director of the KCK Organic Teaching Gardens in collaboration with KCK Public Schools, and the Office of Cultural Enhancement and Inclusion of University of Kansas Medical Center. Bruce and four Elementary Schools: Frank Ruston, Banneker, Quindaro, and M E Pearson, in Kansas City, Kansas and School District #500. For 21 years Mark Manning has served as co-founder and Coordinator/Director of the KCK Organic Teaching Gardens in collaboration with KCK Public Schools, and the Office of Cultural Enhancement and Inclusion of University of Kansas Medical Center.

Each year 1000 to 2000 students, between K through 6th grades, participate in 9 months of workshops that include: planting & harvesting fall, spring and summer gardens; learning about the parts of a seed and the parts of a plant; composting & worms; George Washington Carver and the history of sweet potatoes; salsa gardens and the history of the tomato. Workshops involve preparing food harvested from the gardens for students to eat, reading from garden literature, and connecting students to their own classroom curriculum benchmarks. Garden Coordinator Mark Manning conducts over 50 workshops each month in classrooms at these schools.

In March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic closed down KCK schools, and classrooms went virtual, the non-profit entity that had been funding our program decided to reduce our funding by 75%. Then three months later, without any reason or warning, they ended their relationship with our program entirely. This was devastating and painful, but we continued forward as we always have, despite the challenges.

Without our funder's help in September 2020 we worked in collaboration with KCK Public Schools, Kansas City Community Gardens, and JE Dunn Construction to build an 18 raised-bed garden at the new Carl B. Bruce Middle School. In November working safely with multiple teams of volunteers we harvested organically grown sweet potatoes at six of our school garden sites. We were able to donate several thousand pounds of potatoes back into the neighborhoods and schools, all without funding.   

This year in May we will be safely working with volunteers doing clean up and planting summer gardens at all seven of our sites. We will plant: 750 sweet potato slips, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, beets, leeks, carrots, chard, strawberries, sunflowers, native plants, cotton, zinnias, marigolds, snapdragons, alyssum, and so much more. We want to have our gardens growing healthy and strong for students when they return in the fall.

We are currently still searching for funding, however in the meantime we need your help to plant our gardens this May. We are seeking to raise $1500.00 to purchase sweet potato slips, seedlings, seeds, native plants, and materials for planting for a combined 92 raised beds at our seven school sites.