Winners of Rye YMCA "Edible Gardens" Grant Announced
Milton, Daniel Warren and Mamaroneck Ave. Schools
(July 1, 2009) For three local schools, the school year comes to an end with a surprise parting gift in the form of a $3000 grant
from the Rye YMCA to develop an edible gardens prgram for launch in Fall 2009.
With funding received from the General Mills Foundation’s “Champions for Healthy Kids” program, the Y selected the 3 winning schools from a competitive application process that was open to elementary schools in the Rye, Rye Neck, and Mamaroneck school districts.
The winners of the Y’s Edible Gardens grant are: Milton School in Rye, Daniel Warren in Rye Neck and the Mamaroneck Avenue School in Mamaroneck.
Over the course of the next year, the Y will track the development of each school’s garden program including crop selection, lesson plan development and seasonal harvests. These observations will be compiled in a “lessons learned” or “How To” guide that will be distributed to schools interested in developing their own garden program.
Gregg Howells, Executive Director of the Y explains that community garden programs are becoming more and more popular, but that the learning curve for a successful one can be steep. “We hope that by developing a garden guide, we can help other schools to get their gardens growing sooner rather than later. We think this is a fun way to encourage kids to try new fruits or vegetables.”
The winning schools were selected based on criteria that included being “shovel ready” for Fall implementation, integration of the garden into the school curriculum, and support of parents, teachers and school staff. The selection committee was comprised of Activate America coalition members Toby Miller of the Westchester County Dept. of Health’s FitKids program, Donna Gaudioso-Zeale of Greenwich Hospital and coalition chairman, Dinah Howland of Harrison.
The edible gardens program is one initiative of the YMCA’s Activate America initiative to promote long term healthy living among school children through increased physical activity and nutrition education.
