Fairmont Elementary Children's Garden
1725 Abbie Dell Ave, New Albany, IN.

 

Fairmont Children’s Garden began three years ago with 3 raised garden boxes. The non-profit, Let Us Learn, founded by Chef Gina Brown’s passion for teaching children valuable life skills, began planting the garden as an after-school program. The garden is an outdoor classroom and now has a variety of vegetable gardens, a pollinator garden, sensory garden, pizza and salsa gardens, herb garden, fairy garden, and the newest is a storybook garden.

 

During the school year, the LUL classes have approximately 70 kids( all 4th grade) every other Thursday, as part of their class curriculum. The LUL children planted vegetables from a to z, and started zinnias and marigolds from seed as companion plants to the vegetable gardens. They care for, weed, harvest, and learn to cook.

 

Other programs under Let Us Learn are: 1)  Veggie Rescue , after the New Albany Farmers Market, left over veggies are donated by generous farmers to Veggie Rescue, and handed out to those in need. 2) Let Us Cook, at New Albany Farmers Market, kids learn from local chefs by buying from the local farmers, and cooking the food. 3)Beginning Oct. 2019 begins Growing Dinner Classes in the garden (weather permitting).

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Gina Anderson will have a monthly class, and Gina Brown will have cooking demos that align with the class. This is for Fairmont families, and they will receive the fresh items so they can prepare them at home. 4) Growing Gardners Club meets every Wed. after school, and is open to grades 2, 3, & 4.  We meet in the garden, weather permitting, and focus on the needs in the garden, nutrition, crafts, and games. This is open to 20 kids per class. We will have two 9 week sessions, because of the great response.