How does a school garden grow?

It starts when educators who believe in the profound importance of teaching children to garden plant the idea with their students. Together, they water it with garden curriculum, encompassing hands-on digging in the dirt as well as healthy eating and environmental stewardship. The harvest is not only fresh produce that can feed the students, but skills that are gained by not sitting at a desk.

Many schools have taken up school garden projects around the nation. In Maine, schools have the great fortune to have the Maine School Garden Network, whose mission is to promote and support educational gardens. It supports its mission by working to connect all school gardens in the state to resources and support they need to thrive.

To further cultivate its work, the organization hosted the ninth annual Maine School Garden Day in late April at the Maine Academy of Natural Sciences in Hinckley. A full day of workshops and networking included a keynote talk by Roger Doiron, founder and director of SeedMoney, a Maine-based nonprofit that helps food garden projects find funding.

Doiron gained international acclaim when, in 2008, he successfully proposed and petitioned the White House to replant a kitchen garden. His work helping shift conversations about healthy foods and sustainable communities earned him the “Heart of Green” award and other accolades.

Event attendees also heard stories from garden programs throughout Maine and connected with supporting organizations — FoodCorps, ReTreeUs, AgrAbility, Natural Resource Conservation Services and University of Maine Cooperative Extension — to build resources and knowledge. Workshop topics included tower gardening, aquaponics, hydroponics, growing rice, keeping bees, Integrated Pest Management, school garden curriculum, and healthy eating.

MSGN Coordinator Erika Verrier showcased the organization’s new School Garden Coach Manual, encouraging and supporting sustainability and leadership of school garden programs, and featuring links to more than 60 extensive resources.

The School Garden Coach Project — which began in 2016 with funding from the Sewall Foundation — this year provided two $2,000 stipends for paid school garden coaches to two schools in Maine. That created a collaborative relationship with the programs to provide mentorship, create resources and promote a compensation model other schools could use to integrate into their coaching budget.

The School Garden Grown program — collaborations with Maine agricultural fairs across the state that provide students opportunities to showcase the fruits and vegetables of their labors in exhibition halls — was also highlighted.

For more information about the Maine School Garden Network, or how to connect with Verrier about resources, visit msgn.org.