Groundwork Somerville offers garden-based education to children in Somerville's eight public elementary and middle schools, as well as a public charter school. In both in-school and after-school programs, children learn to plan, plant, tend, and harvest from their own school gardens, and even cook with food they have grown. The school gardens have all been built with volunteer labor, and most are located on sites that were previously paved or abandoned.
Our school gardens provide practical, hands-on laboratories in which students can explore traditional subjects like biology, chemistry, math, English, arts, and social studies; they also allow students to participate in fun activities that get their minds thinking, creativity flowing, and bodies moving.
Recent research shows that Groundwork Somerville's school garden programming, in combination with revamped school lunches, a stronger focus on physical activity and healthy eating, and other public health efforts, has been effective in reducing child obesity rates in the Somerville Public Schools.
Check out all of our gardens:
Watering Heroes & Garden Gurus Needed!
Get involved in maintaining our school gardens.