Cultivating Community offers consulting support for teachers and administrators to create learning gardens and develop garden-based curriculum.  We use our Earth Steward Gardener curriculum to lead hands-on, interactive food and garden programming in school gardens for youth of all ages.

We partner with schools who want to use food and gardens to teach about leadership and stewardship. In 2010 we have ongoing school partnerships with the Maine College of Art, Portland High School, South Portland High School, King Middle School, Lyman Moore Middle School, East End Community School, Presumpscot School, and Waynflete School.

Cultivating Community support schools through a range of services including garden installation, technical assistance to teachers and staff, program delivery, and more. For more information, contact Youth Programs Manager Alida Payson.

Highlights of some of our current partnerships--

• East End Community School students planted and grew the ingredients to make their own Stone Soup to feed the school:  tens of pounds of carrots, potatoes, onions and beets.  Students planted the Stone Soup garden this spring, which has been growing with help from the City of Portland, teachers and many volunteers since 2008.  The school has embraced the garden as an outdoor classroom and resource for expeditionary learning.

• Presumpscot School kindergarteners in Rebecca Maiorano’s class carefully built raised beds and shoveled a mountain of manure to build a vegetable and sunflower garden right in the front of the school.  They grew pumpkins, peas, potatoes and peppers.  Teachers in other classrooms have used the gardens for lessons, and the school recently received a grant from PROP to expand the learning garden with more raised beds, a path, and seats for an outdoor classroom.

• South Portland High School Learning Alternatives program school garden and vibrant greenhouse aren’t only about growing the food and learning about the health, economic, and environmental benefits, but also about giving back to the community.  Students in Mrs. Ferrante’s ecology class designed and planned the garden and built five raised vegetable beds as well as two compost bins with Cultivating Community.  Students planted, cultivated, and brought their harvest brought to both the school’s cafeteria and Ronald MacDonald House in Portland.   This fall, Ecology and math students are tackling new plantings and green greenhouse-based enterprises.

• Maine College of Art, MECA, freshman involved in the first year service-learning course completed inspiring service on our farms and community food justice projects.  This work demonstrated how to shape more sustainable, connected and healthy communities.  Community projects by students have included recycled-material garden sculptures, a garden bench, a cold frame, educational posters, food cooked and delivered to elders in our Eldershare program, and much more.