Classroom Connections at Lincoln Garden aims to:

• Integrate garden learning into the classroom curriculum
• Increase place-based learning experiences related to classroom curriculum
• Increase student’s connection and relationship to nature
• Increase student’s knowledge of where their food comes from
• Provide new food experiences to students and encourage them to taste fresh produce
• Teach children about the importance of making healthy food choices

Kid Friendly Gardening Tip: Kids like veggies that they can eat raw. Plant colorful, fun varieties like cherry tomatoes, lemon cucumbers, mini-bell peppers, easter egg radishes and dinosaur kale!

Kid Quote: "I've never liked this but now that I eat it straight from the ground, it's so good!" --Lily Blue

NEW: Monthly Garden Work Parties at Lincoln Garden!

Tend, Mend & Mingle: Lincoln Elementary 

8am-10am in the Lincoln School Garden on the 1st Thursday of the month

No Work Parties Dec/Jan

Coffee & Bagels provided!

The Healthy Youth Program invites you to join us once a month for Tend Mend & Mingle in two of our school gardens. These events are a chance to gather to work on garden-related projects, and build community through hands-on/minds-on service learning projects.  

All are welcome!

How to Volunteer:

1. Check in as a visitor at the school office

2. Meet our Garden Manager, Aliesje at the school garden

3. Enjoy light garden work, snacks and coffee!
 

Contact [email protected] or visit our website for more information.

Other volunteer opportunities are available at Lincoln Garden for:

• Parents of Lincoln Elementary School students
• OSU student groups
• High school students 
• Corvallis Community members 

Please contact us for more information: [email protected]

The Lincoln Garden, located in the heart of the South Corvallis community, is one of the longest-lived school gardens in the Corvallis area. It was established more than 15 years ago! Nestled between Lincoln Elementary School and the soccer fields, this garden has a rich and varied history of care and use. 

Many community members and organizations have tended the garden alongside Lincoln students over the years. Some of these include Corvallis Environmental Center’s Edible Corvallis Initiative, former Corvallis Parks and Recreation AmeriCorps service member, Ronjon Datta, and South Corvallis resident, Cheryl Good. Cheryl originally began a Lincoln Garden webpage and more details on the earlier garden can be found there. 

In September 2012, the Healthy Youth Program took on the role of managing the Lincoln Garden, and it was utilized mainly for after school programming with the Lincoln Lion’s Den. 

In the spring of 2013, in collaboration with Lincoln administrators, the Healthy Youth Program was awarded a generous grant from Spirit Mountain Foundation to reinvigorate this South Corvallis gem. In keeping with Cheryl’s original intent to provide a garden space for both children and the greater community, we set out to not only double the garden’s growing capacity, but also to increase and diversify its use. 

Our vision is for the Lincoln Garden to become a highly valued community resource where students and their families come together to grow, harvest and enjoy healthy, freshly harvested produce. We are well on our way thanks to the help of many community volunteers!  Interested in helping?  Please visit our volunteer page.

In 2013, the Healthy Youth Program (HYP) announced the addition of the Pauling Pride Garden at Linus Pauling Middle School (LPMS) to our programs! This terrific garden plot and greenhouse had been well-maintained by Master Gardener volunteers for many years prior; the HYP garden team was thankful to have “inherited” such a loved space! We hope to continue working with interested volunteers and LPMS students to maintain this garden space.

As the HYP continues to expand school programs at Lincoln Garden (Lincoln Elementary School) and Spartan Garden (Corvallis High School), it is exciting to be able to bridge the gap by reaching middle school students at the Pauling Pride Garden.

LPMS students and volunteers help plant, tend, and harvest a thriving Pauling Pride Garden while learning the science behind the practice. Our Junior Master Chefs Camp has been offered for several summers at Pauling Pride Garden, following our model for using and maintaining the garden in the summer. Late-season plantings are included in all our summer camp curricula, so school students will have plenty of fruits and vegetables to harvest and enjoy when they return in the fall.

S.P.E.A.R. Summer Internship:

• For more information, and to GET INVOLVED, visit our new webpage for high school internships!

The Spartan Garden provides an easily accessible outdoor learning resource, where classroom connections can be made to multiple disciplines. The Healthy Youth Program’s garden educators work with CHS students and teachers to make these connections. Below is a list of some of the CHS student projects in the garden:

• Kevin Skillings' woodworking students built the vegetable washing sinks and two of the main garden sheds;
• Brian Wake's horticulture students participated in the development of the Spartan Garden by creating beds, weeding, mulching, and planting.  They experimented with cover crops, learned about soil properties, and tested growing media with visits from a Healthy Youth Program garden educator;
• Britten Clark-Huyck's Botany students continue to explore cover crops and soil properties in the garden, as well as growing plant starts;
• Julia Lont's art student designed and constructed the "Spartan Garden" sign - the carrot that hangs over the entrance;
• Julia Lont's art classes used pumpkins and other garden produce to create a still life art project;
• Julie Williams' sustainability classes have done various projects in the garden including using spinach, beets, strawberries, and pumpkins from the garden to make delicious Pumpkin Pie, Cucumber-Pear, and It’s Easy Being Green smoothies and juices to share with the rest of CHS during morning break;
• Kristen Hackethorn's senior foods students harvested fresh produce to make a capresse salad, and tasted three dishes prepared from different squash varieties grown in the garden; 
• Christa Schmeder's ceramics students created hand-crafted tiles used to cover the cooking tables at the garden;
• Amy Knoke's world literature students participated in a service learning project in the garden;
• English Language Development students learned about gardening as a hobby and working outdoors as a career choice.

Career-Related Learning 

The Spartan Garden also provides students with opportunities for Service Learning, to fulfill their Career Shadow Experience and Extended Application requirements, and to earn credit for Internships and Structured Work Experience. Please contact the Healthy Youth Program if you are interested in incorporating the Spartan Garden into any of your required career-related learning experiences at CHS!

Many adolescents have developed unhealthy eating habits and eat few or no fruits and vegetables on an average school day. According to the Oregon Department of Human Services, only 18% of 11th graders in Oregon consumed the recommended 5+ servings of fruits and vegetables per day. Our children and adolescents are constantly exposed to fast-food commercials, snack and soda vending machines, and other unhealthy calorie-rich snack foods.

We need to find a way to teach our adolescents to make food choices that will nurture their bodies and help them stay healthy. There is no quick-fix for unhealthy eating habits, including the overconsumption of calories, but through a school garden we might get adolescents into another kind of relationship with food by teaching them where their food comes from, the value of eating healthy foods, how to respect and take care of their environment, and the nurturing effects of preparing and eating a meal together with families and friends at the table. In addition, studies have found positive impacts of school gardens on eating and exercise behaviors as well as improved academic performance and attitudes towards learning.

To address this, the Linus Pauling Institute's Healthy Youth Program partnered with Corvallis High School (CHS) to develop a school garden that will be maintained by the high school students throughout the school year. The garden is located on an empty lot south of the football field and the track.

Corvallis High School serves as the magnet school for all life skills students in the Corvallis School District. Construction of a paved area for accessible raised table beds was accomplished through volunteers of the 2012 OSU Alumni Association’s Community Day of Service.

More than 45 volunteers showed up for the 2012 OSU Alumni Association's Community Day of Service project at the Spartan Garden!