This year I’ve been wildly impressed with and grateful for the dedication of our school garden coordinators. Despite pandemic times, we had 131 schools plant a garden during the 2020-2021 school year. Those gardens were planted abundantly with 10,836 plants and 1,986 packs of seeds at schools throughout Kansas City. We also packed and distributed 2,498 Take Home Garden Kits and had 12 new schools join the Schoolyard Gardens program during this school year.

While we continue to miss going out to schools and engaging with students in the garden, it has made my day each time one of you sends me a garden update and shares photos of your plants growing, being harvested, and eaten by your students and community. Please keep those stories and pictures coming!

Thank you for all you do to make our vision of A Garden for Every School possible. We’d love to connect with you this summer either out in the garden, or virtually, to debrief about your year in the garden and make plans for the fall. Contact us to schedule something. 

This summer we invite you to come over to Kansas City Community Gardens to visit our Beanstalk Children’s Garden where you can taste, touch, smell, hear and see all kinds of plants growing in our garden. We are open Monday through Friday 9am-4pm and invite you to come visit. Admission is free to people independently strolling through the garden. Come relax, and enjoy the beauty as the garden grows and changes each month. 

Finally, if you haven’t yet filled out the End of the Year survey for SYG, please do so soon. We use the responses to these questions to shape our next year of programming and value your feedback! The link to the survey is in your email or you can contact your SYG coordinator for more information.