Founded in 2000 by a dedicated group of parents and teachers, the Garden of Wonders education program began at Edwards Elementary School with a small group of students and parents working in a community garden plot. Along with the creation of grade appropriate garden curriculum, the Garden of Wonders initiated a number of school-wide events, such as an Earth Day Celebration, a Harvest Festival, and a Chefs-in-Residence program. The support of a number of community partners, such as the Portland Schools Foundation, Slow Food, Chef’s Collaborative, and Portland State University’s FEED (Food-based Ecological Education Design) project, helped to make these program improvements possible.
In 2005, with the closing of Edwards Elementary, the Garden of Wonders was relocated along with the Edwards students to Abernethy Elementary School. Besides almost doubling the student population served, the move also provided a new kitchen-classroom space for instructing children in the preparation of home-cooked meals from their harvests and increased garden space.
Beginning in September 2005, two aspects of the Garden of Wonders project grew and developed. The first was the expansion of the food and garden education program that teaches students about food, how to grow and prepare it, and its cultural significance. For the first time, the Garden of Wonders education program became a part of the school curriculum. A full-time AmeriCorps volunteer serves as the Food and Garden Coordinator, instructing the students in the vegetable garden, the native plant garden, and the kitchen classroom. Each of the 366 students at Abernethy participates in the program for three full weeks each year, giving students seasonal experiences in the garden.
Because of the Garden of Wonders history and commitment to teach children about local, seasonal and sustainable foods, Portland Public School’s Nutrition Services committed to reviving the Abernethy on-site kitchen for preparing and serving students breakfast and lunch, cooked from scratch, on a daily basis. This demonstration project is providing Nutrition Services with data to address the challenges and benefits of running an on-site kitchen.
Thus there are three significant program components: the Scratch Kitchen Model, the Garden of Wonders, the physical outdoor garden space which serves as a living laboratory for all Abernethy students, and the Garden of Wonders Classroom where students tie food and garden education to practical, hands-on classroom science, math, language, history and art lessons.