Help Us Grow: Building a Community Garden for Our Students

My name is Stacey Whorton, and I am a teacher at Walter Johnson Academy of International Studies. I have been an educator for 35 years. My passion, other than education, is gardening and growing our food without the use of chemicals. My dream is to share this passion with the students at our school and our community.

We are a dedicated team of educators and community members at a Title 1 school where more than 75% of our students come from low-income households. We believe that every child deserves access to healthy food, hands-on learning experiences, and a connection to nature. That’s why we’re launching a School Community Garden Project—and we need your help to make it a reality.

Our goal is to teach students how to plan, plant, and harvest their food, giving them the skills and knowledge to create healthy habits, embrace sustainability, and discover a passion for gardening. This will be more than a garden; it will be a living classroom, a place of growth, and a hub for service and action within our school and community.

The project will roll out in three phases, with our first goal focused on installing:

9 raised garden beds

1 ADA-accessible garden bed

10 fruit trees to provide fresh produce year-round

This initiative will be part of our Service as Action curriculum, encouraging students to take ownership of their learning and give back to their community in meaningful ways.

With your support, we can transform a patch of unused schoolyard into a vibrant, nurturing space that will benefit our students, families, and the wider community for years to come. Every donation, big or small, helps us plant the seeds of change.

Thank you for helping us grow!