Micheltorena Street Elementary School, in conjunction with the Silverlake Neighborhood Council, Sustainable Silverlake and countless community volunteers, are in the process of designing a school / community garden that will live in the parking lot located on the corner of Micheltorena Street and Sunset Boulevard.
On September 1, Micheltorena Street School was awarded a $10,000 grant from the Silverlake Neighborhood Council to accelerate our garden project into PHASE 2 construction …and turn the asphalt to actual green stuff!
Please send them a <thank you> at board@silverlakenc.org.
With this generous grant, we are now on the eve of breaking ground at the garden. LAUSD has been very supportive of our project and generous with their guidance on construction and logistics. LA Conservation Corps is donating valuable expertise and labor to our project, and multitudes of community members have offered their volunteer manpower. Our plan has been approved, papers signed, and we are ready to roll!
We invite you to visit our fundraising page and donate to our garden project: http://www.donationstracker.com/mes_garden Donations are tax deductible, and you will be sent a ‘thank you’ receipt to submit with your taxes via email.
We are also on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Micheltorena-Elementary-Garden/132449970101203 (Scroll down to see the donations thermometer!)
The Micheltorena Elementary School garden will be shared with the Silverlake community and will provide numerous opportunities for teaching and education, as well as plenty of food and flowers for both students and community members. Our garden team is already hard at work greening up other areas of the school. In particular, a raised bed already planted with drought tolerant plants is now weeded, mulched, and sharing space with pumpkin seedlings set to mature just in time for Thanksgiving!
Thank you so much for your support of our garden!
Questions? Feel free to direct them to r.h.crane@gmail.com
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Not a fan of online donations, but would like to give to our project? You can send a check, made out to “Community Partners FBO* Friends of Micheltorena” to the address below:
Community Partners, Finance Department
1000 North Alameda Street, Suite 240
Los Angeles, CA 90012
*FBO is “for benefit of.” Put “Garden” in the notes section of your check. Community Partners, a recognized philanthropic organization under 501(c)(3) tax-exempt public charities status (#95-4302067), is the umbrella organization for Micheltorena’s booster group, Friends of Micheltorena. You can visit their webpage at www.communitypartners.org.
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Visit LAUSD’s website on how to set up your own school garden: http://mo.laschools.org/green-spaces/
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Read our proposal below! (and thanks again for your support!)
Proposal: Micheltorena Elementary School / Community Garden Project
GOAL: Transform a 2,300 s.f. asphalt parking lot at Micheltorena Elementary School into an organic garden and experiential, cooperative classroom. Grow organic fruits and vegetables; learn to prepare healthy foods and create fundamental change for the school and the community it serves.
NEED: A recent Progress Report created for Micheltorena Elementary shows 412 enrolled students 86% categorized as socioeconomically disadvantaged. 1 in 3 Los Angeles school children are projected to be obese in 2010.
COMMUNITY IMPACT: In advocating for these kids and community, the plan is to build the garden with he plan is to build the garden with the LA Conservation Corps & the “Silver Lake Green Brigade” – all local volunteers – to support parents, teachers and Principal Furfari at Micheltorena Elementary. Synergy between community and school will amplify monies raised exponentially. Friends of Micheltorena, working under the umbrella of the non-profit group Community Partners, will insure funding for upkeep and improvements for years to come.
The garden will be the first step in reshaping the immediate school environment – slowing traffic, planting trees, building a bus shelter on Sunset Blvd, and making the street crossing safer. The garden will also help raise the school’s profile and promote enrollment.
HEALTH AND EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING: The garden will empower a nascent movement to replace trucked in hot lunches by reopening the school’s cafeteria and stocking it with fresh local and seasonal foods, grown by and for the kids.
A garden kitchen will provide local chefs the opportunity to teach kids the culinary arts and how to cook a healthy meal.
Surplus produce will be donated to local pantries serving the dis-advantaged, teaching the value of sharing within community. Partnering with local nonprofit Hollywood Sunset Free Clinic will teach kids the medicinal uses of herbs. A chicken coop and fishpond will enhance the biodiversity of the garden and teach perma-culture.
Rainwater collecting and solar panel observation will help this off the grid garden teach environmental sustainability.
In addition to the regular school garden features, part of our edible herb, fruit and vegetable crops will be sold by the students to local restaurants, introducing early-on the concept of “income” as linked to sustainability.
Eventually, the gardens in local Elementary, Middle, and High schools will all connect via “gateways” in each school garden, poetically suggesting growing up is a not-so-scary walk from garden-to-garden, school-to-school. Older students will be able to mentor younger ones, creating a strong link between schools and easing the stresses of childhood.
SUMMARY: As an interdisciplinary school environment and community project, this garden will be a transformational force for Micheltorena School and for the citizens of Silver Lake. It will serve as an educational tool, classroom area, and a gathering place for students, teachers, parents and the community at large.