Groundwork Center for Resilient Communities
Final Grant Report for
Fiscal agent if applicant is not tax exempt:
Tax ID Number:
38-2314954
Contact First Name:
Contact Last Name:
Jen
Schaap
414 E Eighth St Suite 204, Traverse City, MI 49686
Address:
(616) 856-1163
Phone Number:
Project Name:
Farm-to-School Lesson Kit Library
Project start and end dates:
Saturday, May 20, 2023
Saturday, June 14, 2025
Amount Granted From Hestia:
$
3000
Project results and Impact
How many girls/women have been served by the project during this project year?
Approximately 138 women and girls are immediately impacted by the use of the Pellston Farm to School Lesson Kit Library. Updated MiSchoolData demographic statistics for the 2023-2024 year show 98 (K-5) girls making up about 48% of the K-5 student body. There are currently 38 female faculty and administrators. We anticipate that the level of impact will only increase in the years to come as educators continue to implement these lessons in their classrooms, the garden and hoop house, Garden Club, and other STEAM related classes or extracurriculars. Indirectly, these lessons have the potential to reach beyond the classroom and benefit family and community members too.
Goal of the Project
Did you meet your program goals for the grant period?
If yes, how do you know? Please describe any program evaluation you use:
If no, please describe current barriers and how you are working to overcome them:
The goal: to create a STEAM culture, empower teachers, integrate business into education, ensure high-quality educational experiences that foster professional development and provide access to such resources while reducing the extensive need for materials, planning, and preparation that is associated with many hands-on lessons for teachers. This is a long-term target that we are continuing to build into the culture of schools, including Pellston. We persist in working toward addressing barriers to STEAM education and promoting gender equity and building a culture of health in schools with a focus on nourishing bodies and minds through nutrient dense food. We know our goals are worthwhile due to the high level of interest from 9 out of 14 districts to further efforts to expand farm to school programming. Groundwork is working with those 9 districts to provide curriculum development support as it relates to garden and nutrition education to embed this program into their schoolwide culture of health. Staff turnover at PPS and Groundwork did cause delays in implementing this grant. Plans for continued evaluation of the Lesson Kit Library are slated for the coming months and year.
Do you have a story of how your program positively changed participant's situation, behavior, or knowledge?
If so, please share it:
Pellston Public School (PPS) has been at the forefront of farm to school movement in the CharEm ISD region and are committed to this programming–they hosted FoodCorps for 6 years, hired a seasonal hoop house attendant, made changes to their menu to include more scratch cooked items and local produce, and hired a Farm to School Coordinator. By integrating cultural, garden and nutrition education with their lesson kit library, they further exemplify the importance of this programming and are leading the way for other districts at different phases of their farm to school journey. Other districts, like East Jordan Public School and Alanson Public School, are following suit, and are in the planning stages of incorporating similar farm to school lesson kits in the coming year. Students at PPS look forward to their time outdoors; they value their time in the garden or hoop house. The Pellston Garden Club meets regularly each week. Student and community involvement is consistent due to their exposure to garden and nutrition education on a daily basis.
Sustainability
Will this project continue?
If so, how will it be funded?
If not, why not?
Yes, this project will continue. Groundwork in partnership with FoodCorps service members, provide lesson demonstrations for educators and are working on the evaluation piece to assess efficacy and impact. 9 out of 14 districts in the CharEm ISD have committed to a culture of health for their students through the integration of a Farm to School program. The replication and distribution of the Lesson Kit Library is essential to the accessibility of a garden and nutrition education curriculum and the success of their programming.
We work closely with each district in the CharEm ISD to institutionalize their Farm to School programs which includes building this programming into their annual budgets. We have support from the Michigan Health Endowment Fund through the United Way to bolster current efforts on providing this resource to students and embedding nutrition and garden education into the schools within the CharEm ISD. The current Lesson Kit Library should last many years, however, occasional supply replacements may be necessary. By building this into the school district’s budget, those supplies can easily and readily be replenished without needing much grant or donor support.
Public Relations
How did you publicize this grant?
Please list any examples.
Gratitude to Hestia Giving Circle and details regarding the process of creating the Lesson Kit Library and an individual indigenous lesson are shared on Groundwork’s social media accounts, Facebook and Instagram. More social media posts are to come as we continue our work through lesson demonstrations and receiving updates from educators and students through our upcoming survey and evaluation process. More social media posts are to come as we continue our work through lesson demonstrations and receiving updates from educators and students through our upcoming survey and evaluation process.
FB post: https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=816280790548056&set=a.363332385842901
The same post can be viewed on our Instagram account.
Summary Comments
Hestia awarded Groundwork $3,000 to create a Farm to School Lesson Kit Library for PPS. Our goal was to provide teachers a readily available STEAM focused resource to integrate garden and nutrition education into their curriculum. The lesson kit library was designed to empower students through an accessible, equitable, hands-on curriculum that will last beyond their years in the classroom. Students can explore a variety of STEAM career opportunities, develop professional and technical skills, and connect to nature and self. Overall this project is a success–other school districts are committed to the continuation of their farm to school programming by incorporating similar lesson kit libraries, and making advancements to their schoolwide cultures of health. In any project, there is always room for improvement and growth. We learned that there are unforeseen variables when working with community partners and managing projects with many moving parts. Some of those variables, like the staff turnover we each experienced, is out of our control and can cause delays in the project timeline. Communication, patience, and perseverance is key to keeping things moving forward.
Grant Final Budget Form
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