Big Green is thrilled to announce our partnership with Savannah Chatham County Public School System and Loop It Up to offer 2 school garden grant opportunities for the 2023-24 school year to connect students to the life-changing power of growing food.
Dig into JumpstartThere are 2 grant opportunities available for schools in SCCPSS. The Jumpstart Mini-Grant is a $2,000 grant for schools looking for funds to support garden education in the 2023-24 school year. The Jumpstart Learning Garden grant offers schools a full raised bed school garden kit in addition to a $2000 cash grant to put toward their new garden programming. Schools can elect to have resources delivered in the fall or the following spring. We invite SCCPSS schools to apply for the opportunity that is right for your school.
Schools interested in applying for this grant are expected to take on full ownership of the garden. Successful school gardens have strong administrative support, a team dedicated to leading and organizing school garden education, clear programmatic or curricular integrations, and a school-wide commitment to facilitate outdoor education for all students. In order to participate, schools have to meet the following criteria:
The short and simple 20-minute application can be found on our grant portal.
Review these Jumpstart Resources available on our website to give you a feel for the grant opportunities, and the resources available. Decide which grant opportunity is best for your school.
Complete the application. You can easily share it with multiple people on your team to collaborate. The deadline for grants that will be distributed in the fall is June 6, 2023.
Yes, but only one $2000 grant will be awarded per school in the 2023-24 school year.
Yes, The Jumpstart Mini-Grant can be used by any school looking to increase school garden education for their students in this grant cycle.
A full list of everything that comes with a Learning Garden can be found at https://biggreen.org/resources/learning-garden-kit-material-list/
Yes, any school that meets the qualifications listed above on this page can apply for a Jumpstart Mini-Grant or Learning Garden Grant.
There are several options of federal/state programs that people frequently use to represent low income and other considerations that can be used to represent the socio-economic demographics of your school. Schools can also include percentages of students with Disabilities and/or English Language Learners to demonstrate needs.
No, The Jumpstart Mini-Grant requires schools to attend 2 PD sessions. One is a webinar in June to support the development and organization of a school garden leadership team and the second is an asynchronous course on our website called Jumpstart: Organizing the Outdoor Classroom.
Schools receiving the Learning Garden Grant will be required to attend 3 PD sessions. The same School Garden Leadership Team webinar for all Jumpstart Grantees, an additional session on planning a garden Kickoff Event and the logistics of receiving and building your new Learning Garden, and an in person event to offer hands-on guidance to build the garden and introduce the curricular resources available to support student learning in the garden.
Bring your garden to life with Big Green and Readers to Eaters and the Read as you Grow project. Feed hungry minds and bring ELA education to life with students outside in the garden by connecting the stories and ideas that they are exploring in these fantastic books to what they can observe while growing food in their garden.
Series of short & simple SEL activities (K-5)