School & Youth Garden Workshop
About this Event
UF/IFAS Extension Lee County and ECHO Global Farm are hosting the School & Youth Garden Workshop, a full day of hands-on training for anyone building, leading, or supporting school & youth garden programs in Southwest Florida. This year's workshop runs a full day and includes three hands-on ECHO farm experiences, sessions on building programs that last and teaching in the garden, crop-specific growing sessions on tomatoes and peppers, and a live cooking class using garden produce. Presented in partnership with the Lee County School District's-Healthy Living Collaboration (HLC), UF/IFAS Lee County Master Gardeners Program, Sakata Seeds of America, and The Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation.
Topics
- Building a school garden program that lasts beyond one school year
- Hands-on farm, community garden, and urban garden techniques adaptable to school gardens
- A Peer Learning Session focused on working through the real challenges of classroom management outdoors and connecting garden time to classroom curriculum
- Growing tomatoes and peppers in Southwest Florida school gardens
- A live class connecting cooking, gardening, and learning
Who should attend
Educators, school leadership and administrators, volunteers, Food and Nutrition Services (FNS) staff using garden grown produce, school garden support organizations, and community partners working and supporting youth & school garden education programs.
Registration
Free. Capacity: 40 attendees.
Lee County teachers: this training includes in-service hour credits. Contact Susie Hassett at [email protected] or (239) 699-4476 with questions.
Contact
For questions or help with registration, contact Kathleen Morales Perez at [email protected] or (239) 839-4582.
Accommodations
If you require special accommodations, such as interpreter services for the deaf or hard of hearing, please email [email protected] at least four days before the program begins. TTY/TDD/FRS: dial 711.
*An Equal Opportunity Institution.
Agenda
🕑: 07:45 AM - 08:15 AM
Arrival, Registration & Welcome
Info: Participants check in and get oriented for the day.
🕑: 08:15 AM - 09:15 AM
ECHO Experience: Guided Farm Tour, Community Garden, or Urban Garden
Host: ECHO Global Farm Team
Info: Attendees are divided into three groups. All three sessions run at the same time, each one hour long, and each group attends only the one session they are assigned to, there is no rotating between groups. This format gives participants a more focused, hands-on experience in a smaller group setting.
🕑: 09:25 AM - 10:25 AM
Session 1: Building School Garden Programs That Last
Host: Kathleen Morales Perez, Food Systems Specialist
Info: This session opens the instructional portion of the day by zooming out from the garden itself to the program around it. What does it actually take to keep a school garden going year after year? This session looks at the systems, structures, and decisions that determine whether a program survives leadership changes, funding gaps, and teacher burnout, or doesn't. Includes a hands-on activity and structured time for participants to share their own experiences and challenges. Designed to be the foundation for everything that follows in the day.
🕑: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Session 2: Teaching in the Garden: A Peer Learning Session
Host: Susie Hassett, Environmental Education Resource Teacher
Info: Participants work in small groups using discussion prompts covering the day-to-day realities of teaching in the garden, classroom management outdoors and connecting garden time to classroom curriculum. Groups reconvene at the end to share what surfaced, so the whole room leaves with strategies gathered from each other, not just from a single presenter.
🕑: 11:40 AM - 12:40 PM
Cooking Class & Lunch
Host: Daniela Craciun, Assistant Manager for School Gardens
Info: This session is a full hands-on cooking class that invites everyone to experience the connection between food, community, and learning. Using fresh produce, including popular school garden crops, participants cook and eat as a group, experiencing firsthand how garden-to-table activities work in a school setting. Daniela will model how to facilitate this kind of experience with students to celebrate garden successes and harvest.
🕑: 01:55 PM - 02:55 PM
Session 4: Growing Peppers in School Gardens
Host: Randy Johnson, Senior Station Manager/Plant Pathologist
Info: Peppers are among the most versatile and commonly grown vegetables in SWFL school gardens. This session covers pepper variety selection, growing tips for raised bed and container settings, seasonality, and how to make it a hands-on science and agriculture learning experience for students. Randy will also draw on his broader growing experience to talk about the garden as a connected system, common problems like blossom end rot and what actually causes them, and integrated pest and disease management appropriate for school campuses where chemical use is limited. Sakata Seeds is an existing partner with many Lee County schools through soil, seedling, and produce donations.
🕑: 12:50 PM - 01:50 PM
Session 3: Growing Tomatoes in School Gardens
Host: Tom Quigley, UF/IFAS Extension Master Gardener
Info: Tomatoes are one of the most commonly grown crops in school gardens across the region. This session covers what teachers need to know to grow tomatoes successfully with their students, variety selection, planting timing, raised bed management, common problems, and how to turn the growing process into a hands-on learning experience. Designed for teachers managing groups of students in a school garden setting in Southwest Florida's climate.
🕑: 03:00 PM - 03:30 PM
Closing & Giveaways
Info: Post-survey, group reflection, resource distribution, plant and seed giveaways, and closing gratitude. Participants leave with materials, connections, and a clear sense of next steps for their programs.
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 0.00
