Community Gardens | School Gardens | Sustainable Agriculture
Community Gardens
Pacifica Gardens is a community garden site is a level parcel of land on the grounds of the former Linda Mar School. As a partnership with the City of Pacifica and the San Francisco Botanical Garden's Adult Education Program, the garden will be a demonstration center for biointensive gardening and permaculture techniques. Pacifica Gardens will be both an educational experience and a source of food and jobs for the local community.
The Bay Area Green Gardener Program educates and certifies residential landscapers in resource efficient and pollution prevention landscape practices. Certified Green Gardeners utilize practical, sustainable landscaping skills to reduce water use, to select the most appropriate plants including California natives, to build nutrient-rich soils by promoting plant's natural cycles, and to prune selectively and properly to compliment the natural form and needs of the plant. They are also trained in integrated pest management and the use of alternatives to pesticides and herbicides.
Through community service and educational outreach, the San Mateo & San Francisco Master Gardeners provide home gardeners and community organizations the knowledge and skills to create a healthy environment for the counties.
Full Circle Farm in Sunnyvale, CA
School Gardens
Map of San Mateo County Public Elementary School Gardens - Please email Jenn Gross (jgross@co.sanmateo.ca.us) if you want to add or remove a school garden or revise information on this map.
Health Environment Agriculture Learning Project (HEAL) is a unique, hands-on, award-winning program that instills healthy lifestyle habits in elementary school children while inspiring environmental and agricultural awareness through a comprehensive, interactive curriculum. Thanks to consistent support from Kaiser Permanente, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation and the Hatch Parent Teacher Organization, HEAL will benefit over 600 students in the Cabrillo Unified School District in San Mateo County this year.
Click to view study that assessed the impact of the Healthy Eating Active Living (HEAL) nutrition curriculum on improving the nutrition and health knowledge and vegetable preferences of second grade children. Second graders and their parents in three schools in San Mateo County participated in the study. The Task Force provided partial funding for this study.
Collective Roots posts information about events in East Palo Alto (EPA) at the EPA Charter School's Garden, and offers resources, news, tips on how to start a farmers' market and much more.
Grow It, Try It, Like It! Preschool Fun with Fruits and Vegetables is a garden-themed nutrition education kit for child care center staff, developed by the USDA. Each set of lessons in the six fruit or vegetable booklets contain: hands-on activities, planting activities, and nutrition education activities that introduce MyPyramid for Preschoolers.
The Edible Schoolyard, in collaboration with Martin Luther King Junior Middle School in Berkeley, CA, provides urban public school students with a one-acre organic garden and a kitchen classroom. Site describes how they started their garden and includes classroom lessons, kitchen lessons, and more.
The California School Garden Network serves as a central organization that distributes school garden resources and support throughout the state. The Network's mission is to create and sustain school gardens to enhance academic achievement, a healthy lifestyle, environmental stewardship, and community and social development.
Learn more about their curricula and project at The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) section on Nutrition Education-Gardening with Children includes information about gardening with children and has links to many sites about how to start gardens in schools or child care centers.
Kidsgarden features stories about successful garden programs, grants, classroom activities and more.
Sustainable Agriculture
The Climate-Friendly Gardener: A Guide to Combating Global Warming from the Ground Up provides tools and techniques for climate-friendly home gardening. Created by the Union of Concerned Scientists.
UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program defines sustainable agriculture
Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture (CUESA) defines sustainable agriculture.
American Planning Association's Policy Guide on Community and Regional Food proposes seven policies that planners can support related to sustainable food systems.
Eating Sustainably Guide describes the food resources in the San Francisco Peninsula and the South Bay with some information on food resources in San Francisco and the East Bay. Includes information such as location of farmers' markets, organic community supported agriculture farms, organic produce delivery services, grocery stores, local organic food brands, and more.
Cultivating Common Ground: Linking Health and Sustainable Agriculture Published by the Prevention Institute.
As the first Food System Alliance in California, the San Mateo Food System Alliance has sought to bring together all the parts of the San Mateo County food system into a cohesive group capable of creating an ever healthier and more vibrant local food economy.
The Ag Futures and Food System Alliance movement is project to bring together food producers, consumers, local leaders, health care advocates, and environmentalists to work at county-level action to create a food system that matches our hopes and dreams for the future.
As Fresh As It Gets program in San Mateo County offers awards to restaurants that use local, fresh produce. It also holds ongoing events in the community. This website includes information about award recipients.
San Mateo County produce and fish calendar and market/farm locations.
Institute for Fisheries Resources gives information about when local seafood and fish are in season and where to buy them.
Urban and Environmental Policy Institute published Supporting Local Agriculture and Improving Health Care.
United States Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Services published Small Farms/School Meals Initiatives. This step-by-step guide describes how to bring small farms and local schools together.
Community Food Security Coalition provides general information about farm-to-school programs.