Written by Emily Griffin, Sierra Nevada AmeriCorps Partnership (SNAP) member at Sierra House Elementary School, June 2024
The mission of the Sierra House Garden Program is to “grow” healthy students, families, and communities through garden-based education. I am working on this mission by increasing parent participation in the gardens by hosting events. Parents and students work together to care for their school garden and learn about nutrition along the way.
Students are in the gardens weekly doing curriculum lessons but parents are not often involved in the day to day. I have been striving to increase volunteer opportunities for parents and students. I hosted a Spring Clean Up day where families worked together to improve the gardens and complete major projects. I also ran a Garden Open House for families to tour the gardens and grow domes and learn more about the program.
These events have been successful and we’ve had over twenty parents sign up for volunteer opportunities. It’s amazing to be able to inspire students during class time, but I think the impact will be more lasting if it’s integrated into home life as well. This is a crucial step in bettering the whole community through garden-based education.
Funding for SNAP is supported by Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation’s Nature Fund and Martis Fund – a collaborative project of Martis Camp landowners, DMB/Highlands Group (the developers of Martis Camp), Mountain Area Preservation Foundation (MAP), and Sierra Watch. Sierra Nevada Alliance is a proud grantee of AmeriCorps and California Volunteers, Office of the Governor.
