All We're Missing is Some Compost!

Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.

My Students

Over the past two years, my school has been building a school garden. This spring, we had our first success growing vegetables to harvest, and we are excited to do more! Help make that a possibility by providing the materials we need to turn our beds into greenhouses, and install a compost bin.

My school is a Title 1 school located in Prince George's County, Maryland.

Many of our students are ESOL students who come from families without many resources, and who don't have the same access to resources and experiences as their more fortunate peers in other schools in our country. With these challenges in mind, the teachers in my school have been working hard to create a variety of extra-curricular activities for student development. One of the ways we decided to engage our students was by starting an Earth Club, creating a recycling program and building a school garden, in part with help from other Donors Choose donors. Through these initiatives, students have had the opportunity to see how their actions can impact the environment, and to gain a sense of accomplishment as our school becomes more "green." However, as we think of new projects, we find the need for new resources. We have been able to secure some materials from local business, but the truth is, we need more help.

My Project

We are requesting plastic sheeting to turn the four raised beds in our school garden into greenhouses, so that we can grow plants year-round. These materials will give students the chance to plan and build the greenhouses from start to finish, and also have the opportunity to discover how greenhouses work, and learn which plants will be successful. In addition to the math, literacy and science skills our students will be using, they will develop their problem-solving skills and gain a sense of accomplishment in their abilities. We are also requesting a compost bin so that we can create compost for our garden from our food scraps. Having a compost bin would be a very exciting thing for our students, since it would allow them to see how their actions help reduce waste and impact the environment in a direct way. Teachers could also use the experience to engage students in discussion about reducing our ecological footprint as a school and the importance of caring for the Earth as a whole.

Although this is not a very big project, it would have a very important impact on our school.

Over the past two years, we have been working to turn our school into a place that cares about and cares for the environment. With the addition of a compost bin and tented greenhouses to grow vegetables year-round, our students would be able to take even more pride in our "green" accomplishments, and become even more inspired to protect our planet.