Resources for Educators
Cultural Literacy + Inclusion
The following resources are intended for educators to engage with as part of professional development and to promote ongoing awareness of and work towards social, racial, environmental, and food justice. As the school garden world strives to become more equitable, more multi-lingual resources and materials are becoming available. This page will be updated as more resources become available
School Garden Support Organization Network- Equity & Inclusion in Garden Education
SGSO is a national network providing a multitude of resources for school garden education. As part of the 2021 National SGSO Leadership Institute, a working group of leaders in the field compiled promising practices and critical information to support diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ) in school gardens- including:
- Definition of key terminology
- Understanding systemic oppression and injustice in an educational context
- Embedding equity and inclusion in organizational leadership
- Community partnerships and equitable program development and assessment
- Curriculum and pedagogy resources to promote equity, inclusion, and social justice (including culturally specific curriculum resources, resources for multilingual learners, multicultural book lists, and much more!)
Kairos PDX Black Excellence Archive
The Black Excellence Archive is an ongoing project that aims to highlight and uplift the work and achievements of Black individuals and organizations within the realms of science, food, movement, and belonging outdoors.
This archive is compiled by The Science, Physical Education, and Wellness Team at KairosPDX. Submissions to the Black Excellence Archive can be sent to foodcorps2@kairospdx.org using the subject line “Black Excellence Submission”. Please include links to videos, articles, or any other media if you can. Thank you!
Education Outside DEI Guides
Education Outside was a San Francisco based nonprofit that created wonderful guides specifically intended to bring diversity, equity and inclusion into garden classrooms and garden education organizations. These guides are for both personal and institutional use.
- Education Outside's Organizational Approach to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
- Building Culturally Responsive and Inclusive Outdoor Classrooms
- Hiring Considerations
- Laying the Foundation for Discussing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Among Garden Educators
- Getting to Know Yourself and Your Community: Identity Mapping, Fitting-in vs. Belonging & Asset Mapping
- Supporting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion with External Consultants
- Reflecting on Organizational Culture: Deepening the Work
Discover What Food Sovereignty looks like in the United States
The Narrative Collective of the US Food Sovereignty Alliance recently published a multimedia publication titled Food Sovereignty in the USA: A Selection of Stories. This publication highlights a series of stories that explores the concept of food sovereignty- a vision for democratic control over food and agricultural systems. The stories showcase food sovereignty in action, what the struggle looks like, and how it’s already taking shape. Each of the chapters in this publication provides a short summary text and a link to an accompanying video. Together, the videos and text are intended to raise awareness and inspire conversations within and beyond the food sovereignty movement
Native Farm to School Toolkit & Webinars
The Native Farm to School Webinar Series showcases best practices, shares available resources, and provides an open forum and Q&A sessions for discussing challenges.
Ready Set Grow- Multicultural Farm to ECE Book List
The Food Trust’s multicultural collection of farm to ECE books highlights children’s books that feature characters from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, many of which are authored by writers of color. The list also includes a number of books that are either bilingual or written exclusively in Spanish. These books cover a wide variety of farm to ECE related topics including gardening, farms, cooking, family meals, farmers markets, shopping for food and more.
School Garden Project of Lane County-Increasing Inclusion in the School Garden
Resource Packet for Garden Educators to make gardens and garden education more accessible and inclusive.
Food Systems New England Racial Equity Challenge
Engage with a 21-day Racial Equity Challenge offering daily materials to engage with and reflect on- great to do with a team and can be customized to each organization.
The Power of Community-Based Food Systems
The Food Systems Leadership Network published a multimedia storytelling project documenting how communities across the Northwest are using community-based food systems to catalyze resistance and resilience, self-determination and sovereignty, connection and liberation. Inspiring, tangible examples of diverse food growing projects meeting the needs of the challenging year of 2020.
Soul Fire Farm/ Farming While Black/ Leah Penniman
Soul Fire Farm, cofounded by author, activist, and farmer Leah Penniman, is committed to ending racism and injustice in our food system. Through innovative programs such as the Black-Latinx Farmers Immersion, a sliding-scale farmshare CSA, and Youth Food Justice leadership training, Penniman is part of a global network of farmers working to increase farmland stewardship by people of color, restore Afro-indigenous farming practices, and end food apartheid. https://www.soulfirefarm.org/media/farming-while-black/ | Leah Penniman- Farming While Black (51 minute talk)
Robin Wall Kimmerer
Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She is the author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants and Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses. Braiding Sweetgrass offers a holistic approach to incorporating Native knowledge systems, perspectives, and growing practices.
https://www.robinwallkimmerer.com/ | Robin Wall Kimmerer talk (1:43 hour)
Dr. Camara Phyllis Jones
Dismantling Racism in the Children and Nature Movement. We all want to create more equitable access to the benefits of nature in our programs and in our communities. But to do so, we need to understand that racism exists, examine how it shows up in our lives and in our work, and then commit to organizing and strategizing to act
Dismantling Racism in the Children and Nature Movement (55:14 min)
Culturally Responsive Teaching with Denita White
Hosted by Life Lab in 2021 with generous support from WKF as part of the 2021 SGSO Leadership Institute.
Culturally Responsive Teaching (54:16 min)
Additional Video Recordings:
Curriculum and Teaching Materials:
•Kids Gardening Lesson Plans - will be translating lesson plans into Spanish in 2021
•Lab Vida - books, printable materials, printable posters
•La enseñanza en la Aula de la Naturaleza -Teaching in Nature’s Classroom free download
•Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom - lesson plans
•Cocina con Alimentos de California - a school food cooking guide (made for California)
•Bilingual English/Spanish Gardening Dictionary
•Hay Tierra? Lesson plans and garden guide
Books:
•Ready Set Grow Multicultural Collection of Farm to ECE Books - Multicultural and Spanish language books
•Calabaza, Calabaza by Jeanne Titherington
•Un Puñado de Semillas by Monica Hughes
•El Suelo: Tierra y Arena by Natalie Rosinsky
•La Araña Muy Ocupada by Eric Carlo
Read aloud here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-XasPe_0pA
•El Camino de Amelia by Linda Jacobs Altman
read aloud here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-P5pcWlOOU
Resources for Starting a School Garden:
•School Gardens as Pedagogical Tool
•School Garden Informational Videos
•Technical gardening materials
•How-To Videos in Spanish (including composting, and organic pest mitigation)
Farm to School Resources
•First Nations Development Institute: Native Farm to School Guide - Connecting Traditional Foods, Stories, Language and Community: Native Farm to School is aligned with the mission of Farm to School programs to improve access to healthy local food and provide educational opportunities to understand local food systems, health, and science. Yet, programming for Native Farm to School is distinct in that it relies on the traditional knowledge, community, language, and deep, rich ancestral connections to land and food. Each of these elements is uniquely interconnected making them essential to a Native Farm to School program.
•National Farm to School Network: Farm to School in Native Communities: Farm to School Network is exploring the unique opportunities for and challenges of expanding and sustaining farm to school in Native communities across the country. From developing school menus that include traditional foods like blue corn and bison to working with Native producers, planting heritage orchards, and connecting classroom education with tribal seed banks, together we are breaking down barriers and reinvigorating traditional foodways.
•First Nations Native Farm-to-School Resource Guide: This guide is a comprehensive manual for planning and implementing farm-to-school programs in Native American communities
•Farm-to-School Programs: A Guide for Creating a Farm-to-School Program in an Indigenous Community
•Wisconsin’s Native Farm to School Resource Guide
•Tribal Farm to School Project - Farm to Cafeteria Initiatives: Connections with the Tribal Food Sovereignty Movements A report written by Emily Dwyer with support from Winona LaDuke and Kyra Busch and the National Farm to School Network
•American Indian Traditional Foods in USDA School Meals Programs: A Wisconsin Farm to School Toolkit
•FirstNations.org Native Farm to School Webinar Series
•Bringing Tribal Foods and Traditions into Cafeterias, Classrooms, and Gardens. This USDA fact sheet explores how schools and tribes are integrating traditional foods into child nutrition programs, buying traditional foods locally, and incorporating multicultural nutrition education into classroom curriculum and hands-on lessons in school gardens.
Indigenous Foodways Resources
•Keeping the Tradition Alive: Community Food Systems in Native Communities USDA videos and webinars
•Tribal Food Sovereignty and Food Production: A Resource Directory for Indian Country This directory, developed by the National Congress of American Indians, provides a comprehensive collation of relevant funding resources and other sources of support available to individual Native food producers and tribal nations and organizations as they work to establish, grow, and sustain their food production, sovereignty, and security efforts. It contains more than 125 entries
•CDC Native Diabetes Wellness Program Using Traditional Foods and Sustainable Ecological Approaches for Health Promotion and Type 2 Diabetes Prevention in American Indian and Alaska Native communities was a 6-year cooperative agreement that championed 17 tribal programs. The tribal programs worked to restore access to local, traditional foods and physical activity to promote health. While the Traditional Foods cooperative agreement (2008-2014) has ended, these pages have been maintained to share stories and teachings gleaned and generously shared by these programs
•Robin Wall Kimmerer discusses the Honorable Harvest
•CivilEats article (2020): A New Native Seed Cooperative Aims to Rebuild Indigenous Foodways
•First Nations Development Institute | GATHER film
Oregon Specific Tribal Resources
•Oregon Indian Education Association (OIEA) Promoting quality educational services for American Indian/Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian (AI/AN/NH) people in the state of Oregon.
•Oregon State University Extension Trauma-Informed Toolkit, A Resource for Educators