Greenport has won a $10,000 grant to help the district expand its school garden.
The grant was awarded by Seeds of Change, purveyor of organically grown vegetable, herb and flower seeds, which annually donates 1 percent of its net sales to fund the grant program.
The school was one of 50 finalists chosen by a panel of judges to receive one of 24 grants announced by the company; four were $20,000 grants and 20 were $10,000 grants. The program awarded only one other grant in New York, to a school in Long Island City.
Community support in the form of online votes lifted Greenport to the final round of 50 contestants.
“We are very grateful to all in the community who supported our campaign to receive this grant,” an elated School Superintendent David Greenberg said today.
“Winning this grant will go a long way towards providing fresh, healthy produce for our students and community,” said Gamberg, who submitted the grant application. Gamberg has been a driving force behind the school gardens in both Greenport and Southold, where he also serves as superintendent.
He believes Greenport’s garden needs to be much bigger to fulfill its value to the district. The grant will allow the school to create a larger garden on the grounds southeast of the school building, where it will be visible to the community — relocating from its current plot behind the building, adjacent to a paved parking area and behind a maintenance garage.
The expanded garden “will help make a positive impact on the diets and attitudes towards eating for everyone,” he said. “It will also help provide enriching learning opportunities in all subject areas from science and art, to math and literacy.”
File photo: Denise Civiletti
The superintendent is convinced that if you give kids something to nourish, they are themselves nourished. If he has his way, he says, “eventually over time I’d like a barn and even some animals.”
Greenport’s faculty and student body are looking forward to a larger garden.
“We’d love to have a larger garden. All the kids want to be in it,” third-grade teacher Mary Ann Rempel, who tends the garden with her class, said last month
See the gallery of Seeds of Change grant winners here.
