from the garden

Archive for July, 2006

Inspiration in Sacramento!

On Thursday I was invited to participate in an extremely inspiring tour of school garden work in Sacramento and Davis. The tour was hosted by Dan Desmond, a major guru in the field of garden-based education. Dan is a Fellow in the Kellogg Foundation’s Food & Society Policy Fellowship, and he has connected his fellow [...]

July 24, 2006   Posted in: Uncategorized  2 Comments

Part 3: School Gardens and Civil Society

Since the earliest reflections on the nonprofit or voluntary sector in the US, people have described the nonprofit sector as a pillar of US democracy. Without nonprofits, we would not have the kind of freedom we enjoy today. It is that simple. In fact, school garden-based education programs in schools can play a key role [...]

July 19, 2006   Posted in: Uncategorized  One Comment

Part 2: Weaknesses of Nonprofits

Continuing from last post about the compatibility between school garden programs and the nonprofit sector, this time I’ll cover some of the potential weaknesses of the nonprofit sector, which suggest that partnering with the government sector (like the public school system) might benefit us. Theory: In his theory of Voluntary Failure, Lester Salamon (1995) identifies [...]

July 13, 2006   Posted in: Uncategorized  Comments Closed

Part 1: Should School Gardens be Nonprofits?

Summer is here, schools are empty, and Urban Sprouts is in rest and reflection mode. Instead of teaching classes, I am focusing on my own classes as a student, in USF’s Masters of Nonprofit Administration program. USF provides a strong theoretical background for all those nonprofit skills most of us learn as we go. Our [...]

July 7, 2006   Posted in: Uncategorized  One Comment