Grants help school gardens grow

<p>Four area schools were awarded grants to develop or improve their campus vegetable gardens.</p><p>The School Garden Network of Sonoma County has doled out $16,000 to public schools in Sebastopol, Healdsburg, Occidental and Petaluma for the 2009-2010 school year.</p><p>The largest awards of $5,000 each went to Apple Blossom School in Sebastopol and McKinley Elementary in Petaluma to help fund coordinators to develop and implement instructional garden programs. Each school was also given $500 to send the new coordinators to a five-day summer residential training program at the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center.</p><p>Healdsburg Elementary School was given a $2,000 “Cooking from the Garden” grant while Harmony/Salmon Creek School in Occidental got a $4,000 “Salad Bar” grant.</p><p>Both of those programs are aimed at getting kids to eat more fresh produce, whether from the school garden or local farms. They also help develop student’s skills in preparing healthy meals, raise their awareness of local food systems and support local agriculture, said spokeswoman Nicole Zimmerman.</p><p>This is the third year that the School Garden Network has awarded grants to help improve school food options. Oak Grove Elementary in Graton received $6,000 from 2007 to 2009 to create a school salad bar for its 330 students. Fund-raising by the school has now enabled the program to become self-sufficient.</p><p>The School Garden Network was formed in 2003 to support sustainable garden and nutrition-based learning programs in Sonoma County schools. The non-profit connects school communities with fresh, locally grown foods, and provides a forum for exchanging information and resources.</p><p>Over the past seven years the organization has granted $70,000 to 12 schools. It is supported by individuals and businesses in the community, including Exchange Bank, the Community Foundation and Kendall-Jackson Wine Estates, which donates a portion of the proceeds from its annual Heirloom Tomato Festival every September to the program.</p><p>For more information contact info@schoolgardens.org.</p>