Greenport school needs community help to win garden grant
As warmer weather rolls around, the Greenport Union Free School District is looking to upgrade its school garden by applying for $10,000 or $20,000 grant through the Seeds of Change program.
Greenport must be one of the top 50 vote-getters in the initial voting to advance to the next phase. Community members are encouraged to visit the Seeds of Change website (seedsofchangegrant.com) from now until April 18 to cast a daily vote.
Superintendent David Gamberg said in an email that the school is proposing a larger garden than it currently has behind the school, and would place it off to the side in front of the building. The grant money is supposed to be used to “enhance the environmental, economic and social well-being of gardens, farms and communities,” the district said in a statement.
The organization is looking to award the money to groups who plan on helping support sustainable, community-based gardening programs designed on teaching people about the food they’re growing and eating, the statement read.
Applicants who make the top 50 then move on to the final judging phase. Seeds of Change will then select 24 grant recipients: 12 school gardens and 12 community gardens. Of these, two school gardens and two community gardens will be awarded $20,000 each. The remaining 10 school and community gardens will each get $10,000.
Seeds of Change was founded in 1989 by a group of gardens looking to make organically grown seeds available to gardeners and farmers while preserving heirloom seed varieties that were in danger of being lost due to modern agricultural advances and continues to carry out this goal.
Photo: Students in the current garden located behind the Greenport school. (Credit: Courtesy)
