Help Save Our Teaching Gardens

The KCK Organic Teaching Gardens, were born in 1999 when we organized principals, teachers, parent liaisons, non-profit garden and environmental leaders to help us create working organic gardens to be built directly on the school grounds of four elementary and three middle schools in the inner city of Kansas City, Kansas.

This year we are conducting 49 workshops per month, collaborating with 24 teachers in 24 classrooms, at seven schools, involving more than 1300 students. The schools we serve include Banneker, Frank Rushton, Quindaro, ME Pearson Elementary, Rosedale, Argentine and Northwest Middle School. During the past 20 years over 20,000 students have participated with our workshops, garden plays, garden building, planting and harvesting.



We start in August/September when we introduce students to their garden. In October we activate our “Harvesting Sweet Potato” workshops where students dig up potatoes from the over 750 sweet potato slips students planted earlier in the spring.



In November with our “Sweet Potato Workshops” we make sweet potato fries from our harvested organic sweet potatoes.


In December students are engaged by our “Earth Worms & Worm Bin” workshops.


In January we teach our “Plant Part Art” workshops, followed by our “How Plants Grow” workshops in February.



In March students get back outside for our “Planting Spring Gardens” workshops. In April we present our popular “Salsa Workshops” where students learn how to grow, make, and dance salsa.


In May/June students participate in our “Harvesting Spring Gardens” and “Planting Summer Gardens” workshops. We continue supporting the gardens through the summer.



In January 2019, we lost 90 percent of our funding for the KCK Organic Teaching Gardens due to budget cuts with our major benefactor.  We are seeking emergency funding that will allow us to properly continue through the remainder of this year’s school calendar, where we will be planting at our seven schools and building a new garden at Rosedale Middle School. This will also give us more time to continue searching for more permanent funding partners. 


Please donate to help us continue. Your donation is a valuable investment in a physical organic garden site you can visit and witness, and in a workshop curriculum designed to enhance academic future and life skills of all our participating students.