Tampa Bay Farm2School Network is building an outdoor garden classroom at Cork Elementary Saturday and is welcoming any volunteers to assist in the project.
Students at Cork Elementary School are going to have a new hands-on educational outlet thanks to the efforts of the Tampa Bay Farm2School Network.
The group was created five years ago by Elizabeth Leib, who was passionate about ensuring local youth have access to hands-on agricultural experiences. At 9 a.m. this Saturday, a group of approximately 50 volunteers will go to Cork to build an outdoor garden classroom for the young students.
“Children, there’s a lot of research that points to the fact when they have a chance for hands on learning, they retain the information,” Leib said. “Outdoor classrooms provide opportunities for science, math, really every type of learning. What we’re interested in doing is setting up the physical spaces as well as helping an ongoing coach to bring in volunteers, people to do presentations, to help this space be utilized. We’re really interested in helping the teachers to use the garden.”
The group also recently established a cooking program that teaches children how to harvest and eat the produce they’ve been meticulously growing in their gardens. Leib said they’ve found when children are involved in the entire process of growing and preparing their own food they are more likely to at least try the vegetables and fruit before dismissing it.
The mobile pop-up kitchen comes with tables and hot plates and the children are able to learn all about nutrition and how to prepare fresh food all while enjoying delicious meals.
The volunteers on Saturday will begin the first phase of constructing the garden. Leib said approximately 70 percent of the work will be completed with volunteers constructing the garden frame, mixing garden soil, building picnic tables for students to sit on and digging out and mulching paths from the sidewalk to the garden.
“We really want to develop a group of volunteers that live in the Plant City community to come out and support this project,” Leib said. “We have a longstanding relationship with USF, but it’s a little bit of a distance for students at USF to come up to Plant City. If the community could step in this could really take off.”
Volunteer groups already signed up to participate are Tomlin FFA/Robert Wilder, USF School Public Health, USF Patel College of Global Sustainability, Bethany Baptist Church, USF Morsani College of Medicine, USF Stampede of Service students, Tampa International Airport, Environmental Club of USF/Ben Carr, U.S. Green Building Council-Suncoast Chapter, Tampa Bay Farm 2 Schools & Cork garden team and Tampa Bay Kid’s Kitchen.
This is the first phase of the partnership with the Cork garden team. Next year Leib said she hopes to complete phase two with the support of Plant City businesses, educational organizations and possibly a Home Depot grant to build an outdoor structure (pergola) for kids to sit under in the shade during their lessons.
This is the only Plant City school the group currently works with. Leib said the group wants to “go deep” with all of its schools so it keeps the number it works with limited.
“Too many school gardens get built and then they don’t last because schools need ongoing support,” Leib said. “Next year we will be continuing this process with the school. We’re going to help in any way we can to ensure the students continue to learn from the garden, that they’re getting the best experience they can out of the classroom.”
Support needed:
– Tree company to donate mulch once or twice a year (ongoing)
– Lumber for the outdoor garden classroom – pergola (one-time donation)
– Garden supplies, seeds, tools, gloves (ongoing)
– Seeds and vegetable plants (ongoing)
– Local volunteer groups to help with maintenance of the garden such as HCC, FFA groups, Garden Clubs, IFAS Extension (ongoing)
For more information
Contact Elizabeth Leib at ttfarm2school@gmail.com or 813-892-5704.
