Maldonado Elementary School in Tucson, Arizona, will be getting a new Captain Planet Foundation Learning Garden on Nov. 18, courtesy of Dole Packaged Foods and Bashas’ Family of Stores.
Employees from the companies will join Principal Robbie Ramirez to help teachers and students install their new garden, from 9-10:30 a.m.
The school’s fifth-graders will lay the groundwork by building the five raised garden beds. Then second- and third-graders will place torn corrugated boxes/cardboard as a foundation against weeds and add the soil. Kindergartners and first-graders, accompanied by fourth-grade friends, will plant and water the seedlings and starter plants.
Dole, Bashas’ and Food City officials will join Ramirez in making brief remarks about the creative teaching opportunities the new Learning Garden provides to students
Maldonado Elementary School, located at 3535 W. Messala Way, was recently selected to receive one of two learning gardens (valued at $3,000) in Arizona from the Captain Planet Foundation, courtesy of Dole, Bashas’ and Food City.
Applications to nominate an Arizona school for 2022 Learning Garden opportunities will be available online in January at bashas.com or captainplanetfoundation.org/contest/bashas.
The learning garden comes complete with lesson kits, supplies to establish a schoolyard garden, a fully equipped garden cooking cart and strategies for garden maintenance. The program provides a context for multidisciplinary learning, ranging from nutrition and science to social studies, math and language arts.
Students benefit by expanding their palates, taste-testing healthy foods and learning more about where their food comes from.
In addition to learning how to take care of their garden to produce the best fruits and vegetables and preparing a meal with their fresh-from-the-garden foods, students will gain an understanding and appreciation for what it takes to grow the different varieties of produce available at their local supermarket.
