Local elementary school wins $20K learning garden grant

Monarch Elementary School in Simpsonville won a $20,000 grant from the Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation to create a comprehensive, hands-on, interactive learning garden and classroom space.

Trees, shrubs, and flowers will be planted to help create a pollination space to benefit the environment and provide shade. The area will serve as an organic gardening space for students to grow, care for, and serve in their own cafeteria.

Each grade level will receive a special curriculum to incorporate into their class and care for their garden box, and the school’s art department will work on a garden piece for display each year. Plans also call for a ZEN garden space for school counselors.

Monarch is one of only 24 schools across the country (and the ONLY one in SC!) to receive the School Garden Grant, which includes:

• A garden construction grant to build a new learning garden
• A program grant to support nutrition education lessons in the garden
• Ongoing professional development and 1:1 support to sustain the program
• Help from the Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation coordinating a volunteer work day for the garden build on September 23

There is a Volunteer Work Day on Saturday, September 23 that is part of a nationwide effort to build 24 school gardens in 24 cities in 24 hours – including Monarch in Simpsonville. Parents, students, and teachers will be digging holes, spreading mulch, building a tool shed, constructing garden boxes, and doing whatever else is needed to build the garden.