Success Stories
Thank you for making a big difference.
Project Profile
You helped start something big with Small Change!
This project allowed students and youth to design and install raised bed gardens for food production on school grounds, and rainwater collection systems to water the gardens. The kids in our programs are living in low-income families where food insecurity is a problem.
School food gardens are a great way to teach food literacy and environmental literacy. They are especially important in low-income communities for food security and nutrition. The fresh vegetables and fruits are what children are often missing, and the fact that they are organic means there's no chemicals to harm children's growing bodies. As well they are learning how to take care of their environment. The kids in our programs are living in low-income families where food insecurity is a problem, but contrary to stereotypes their families care very much about the environment.
We have program sites in three schools, two in Toronto District School Board and one in the French public board. Your support has helped us to distribute food grown in the school gardens to students via workshops and/or school lunch programs, and to kids in summer programs, by helping us to build these gardens.
We practice composting wherever possible as part of school day programs using food waste from the school feeding programs, teaching nutrient recycling on site. We collect rainwater to water the plants without using filtered and chlorinated water.
Your generous contributions helped allow us to purchase environmentally friendly building materials called Earth Blocks to build the gardens, which are made from clay soils and air-dried thus costing about 1/10th of the embodied energy of a concrete block. They last longer than wood and save trees.
Green Thumbs Growing Kids works with urban children, youth and families to learn about, grow and prepare fresh healthy foods, cultivated in an environmentally sustainable way, and tries to bring a social justice perspective to all aspects of our work.
