I teach at an innovative and award-winning, K-12th dual-language public charter school in Delaware with a diverse school student population. Fifty percent of our students are minorities and low-income. All of our students study the Greek language and global studies. Our Title I school is located on the outskirts of Wilmington. I truly love working at a diverse school with a focus on global citizenship!
I teach food studies, African-American history, Advanced Placement human geography, and US history to tenth to twelfth-grade students.
I am also the K-12th grade garden coordinator, advisor of the Girls Grow Greens club, and one of the leaders of the Green Team on campus.
Our school is one of only a few schools in Delaware and in the country to receive the eco-schools USA Green Flag award for excellence in environmental action and learning. Recently, our school was honored to be selected as a 2020 U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon School!
Our Green Team has worked incredibly hard to implement several major projects to educate our students about how to be environmental stewards of the planet. For example, we now have a school vegetable garden with 34 raised beds, chickens, and goats!
My Project
Students in 6th-12th grades currently participate in a weekly after school program (90 minutes) titled Girls Grow Greens during the 2020-2021 school year. They have been equipped with advanced farming technology, including three-layer Sananbio Radix kits to explore how urban agriculture can be a viable solution for feeding a global population. Students participate in choosing the growth media; select and plant seeds; combine plants and nutrients and water; monitor plant growth; compost; control pests; and harvest 3,000 fresh vegetables and herbs every 5-6 weeks. In total, students will grow 4,000 pounds of produce in one school year! To date, this fall, my students have harvested close to 2,000 pounds of fresh produce! One-hundred percent of it has been donated to homebound seniors, displaced people, and families living in poverty with no access to traditional food bank programs.
Moreover, the program provides rich opportunities for students to learn more about their own career interests, to develop life skills, to help their families make healthier food choices, and to make positive changes in their community.
The requested vegetable seeds from the African Diaspora and Syria will be used in our hydroponic learning lab. The seeds will be purchased from TrueLove Seeds. The seeds are grown by more than 20 small-scale urban and rural farmers committed to community food sovereignty, cultural preservation, and sustainable agriculture. They share the profits directly with their growers, 50% of each packet sale goes back to the farmer who grew it!
DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.
As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. Tracy and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
{"pmaHash":"","schoolCity":"Wilmington","showProjectRecommendations":true,"teachersOnPage":[4720577],"isTeacherViewingTheirOwnProject":false,"hideTeacherDetails":false,"schoolState":"DE","teacherPossessivePronoun":"her","PMsManager":null,"schoolGradeType":{"id":4,"name":"High School"},"TeacherPMForms":{},"proposalId":5557043,"proposalMessageFormModel":null,"numActiveProjects":4,"completingDonationAmount":0,"teacherHasClassroomPhoto":true,"proposalURL":"https://www.donorschoose.org/project/truelove-seeds-4-our-hydroponic-learning/5557043/","verifyShowPhotos":"","eligibleToBeCopied":false,"mayHaveReplacements":false,"numStudents":100,"teacherScreenName":"Mrs. Tracy","isEquityFocus":false,"authorIds":{"4720577":{"owner":"Mrs. Tracy","donationSalutations":{}}},"displayedPercentFunded":1.0,"proposalsOnPage":[5557043],"proposalHash":"191702287","isApplePayMobileOnly":true,"progressBarPercentage":100.00,"pmaId":"","teacherProfilePhotoURL":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/orig/tp4720577_orig.jpg?crop=439,439,x0,y19&width=136&height=136&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1553314489040","teacherHasProfilePhoto":true,"currentWorkflowStatusCode":21,"teacherChallengeId":20989488,"photosPublished":false,"queryString":"","DonorPMForm":null,"isApplePayEnabled":true,"fundedByTarget":false,"activeProject":{"completingDonationAmount":287,"proposalURL":"project/every-day-is-earth-day-teaching-about-f/8376957/","proposalTitle":"Every Day Is Earth Day: Teaching About Food and Climate","proposalId":8376957},"donorIdsForImpactPhotoCheck":[],"teacherId":4720577,"schoolCounty":"New Castle","fullyFunded":true,"isStudentLed":false,"isExpired":true,"schoolStateObj":{"code":"DE","name":"Delaware"}}
