Home Community Community News Greenport Schools receive $4,990 grant for outdoor garden classroom

Greenport Schools receive $4,990 grant for outdoor garden classroom

Greenport Schools has received a $4,990 Lowe’s Toolbox for Education grant to fund Greenport’s outdoor garden classroom. 

The grant application was based on the goal of developing an outdoor learning space that would further the school and community effort to promote health and wellness, school officials said in a press release.

“The addition of a classroom will be a unique outdoor experience,” said David Gamberg, Greenport superintendent. “As a school community with over 70 percent of our student population eligible for free or reduced lunch, we must promote healthy eating in an effort to give our students a better opportunity to learn and thrive both in and outside of school.”

The Greenport outdoor garden classroom will integrate agriculture into the elementary curricula and the high school production and construction systems classes will design and create the structures necessary for the space, making it so that virtually every grade level in the district can benefit from this project. The space will include an outdoor classroom area, storage shed, seating, and benches for experiments and harvesting, the statement said. 

“Our school and community will greatly benefit from this grant. We want to thank our friends at Lowe’s for generously supporting our Outdoor Garden Classroom,” said elementary principal Joseph Tsaveras.

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Katharine is a writer and photographer who has lived on the North Fork for nearly 40 years, except for three-plus years in Hong Kong a decade ago, working for the actor Jackie Chan. She lives in Cutchogue. Email Katharine