Seed keeping, the ancient art and practice of saving seeds from this year’s crop for years to come, is a key component of climate resilience in farming. It is both a climate change mitigation strategy and a climate justice practice. Seed keeping shifts the focus of farming away from consumerism and towards lasting relationships with plants, each other, and the planet. It fosters community collaboration, story-telling, and trust, creating networks of people who live near each other and are ready to respond to climate emergencies together. It also increases our options for growing food as we exchange rare and beloved seeds with each other, preparing us to keep finding ways to feed our communities as our climate changes.

 

In this fellowship, I aim to expand my knowledge of seed keeping and regenerative farming in order to prepare my students to face an uncertain future. I will use the funding to volunteer and learn from Truelove Seeds in Philadelphia, a small seed company that grows and sells culturally important seeds grown by farmers who steward their ancestral seeds. We started buying seeds from Truelove in 2021, and it’s unbelievable how much our gardening and teaching practices have shifted in just two growing seasons of learning from their seed keeping and storytelling work! We aim to grow crops that connect to the many cultures of the students, staff, and neighbors and have been able to find so many through their catalog. We’ve been collecting seed stories from our own community and have even had people share precious seeds from their families! They’ve motivated us to start keeping seeds of a few more crops each year, and gathering, cleaning, and replanting them has become one of the most meaningful rhythms in our garden. The storytelling aspect of Truelove has made garden-based learning so much more accessible to humanities teachers. By spending a few weeks of this upcoming year learning from Truelove, I’ll be able to incorporate more seed keeping and sustainable farming practices into our school garden, and I’ll be able to weave these lessons into my teaching and the entire garden program.

 

I also hope to use the funding to continue learning about regenerative farming from the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Massachusetts (NOFA/Mass), which provides organizations and farms with many services including soil and climate resilience workshops. I will be able to host a community gathering about soil health and how healthy soil sequesters carbon and helps prepare farmers to grow in the face of climate calamity. I’ll use this learning to collaborate with science teachers on a soil science and climate change curriculum, and NOFA/Mass will return to facilitate a lab with Epiphany students.

 

I will then attend Climate Generation’s annual Summer Institute For Climate Change Education to ensure that my focus remains on climate change education, and I’ll use my learning and time there to write a new curriculum for Epiphany that pulls together garden education and climate education. While there are many garden educators and many climate change educators, there are not many resources for garden educators to teach about climate justice in the garden. I am excited to help generate curriculum in this crucial field at Epiphany and to share our lessons and learnings with other garden educators in the years to come.

 

Measurable Goals of Professional Development Proposed

Goal 1: Intern at Truelove Seeds for two weeks throughout summer and fall to learn best practices for seed keeping of culturally important vegetables, herbs, and flowers

Goal 2: Host a workshop from NOFA/Mass in Epiphany Garden to learn about soil health and regenerative farming to learn about soil and climate change resilience

Goal 3: Attend Climate Generation’s Summer Institute For Climate Change Education to find resources and collaborators for teaching about climate change; use learnings to write curriculum about seed keeping and regenerative farming as a pathways to climate change resilience

 

Bringing the Experience Back to Epiphany 

 

In planning this course of professional development, I have identified three major ways in which it will impact the work I do every day. I plan to:

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1. Incorporate explicit climate justice teaching into garden program curricula and activities

2. Support my colleagues (not only those teaching science) in their efforts to teach about climate justice

3. Connect with and share knowledge of climate justice education with other garden educators to fuel further collaboration

 

On our campus, we have a vegetable garden with 21 raised beds, a 1,000 sq. ft. greenhouse, and 10,000 sq. ft. of outdoor classroom space where students, their families, and our neighbors grow food. Our middle school students see the gardens and greenhouse as an extension of the classroom for both hands-on learning and as a space for relaxation and reflection. Along with the older students, our Early Learning Center toddlers and preschoolers also have class in the garden every week, exploring with all five senses while simultaneously developing their fine and gross motor skills and social skills. Even the toddlers can participate - they love mud and water play and painting with items from the garden!

 

As you may know, Epiphany is an independent school for children of economically disadvantaged families in Boston, with scholarships for all, where we are dedicated to providing children in vulnerable circumstances with the essentials they need to thrive. We do so by intentionally reaching out to those facing poverty, homelessness and family instability. All Epiphany students arrive here with household incomes below the federal poverty line, and we offer structured support to enable children to discover and develop the fullness of their individual gifts and to help their families thrive.

 

We serve the most vulnerable children in our community–those facing challenges including poverty, homelessness, and family instability. In our Early Learning Center (ELC), we receive referrals from Codman Square Health Center and other providers who identify those in need (often teen mothers, the unhoused, etc.) For the Middle School, students are admitted through a lottery open to any child in Boston who is eligible for free or reduced lunch and through referrals from community partners like Brookview House and Horizons for Homeless Children.

 

While we serve families from across Boston, most live in the neighborhoods of Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan, and Hyde Park. These communities embrace rich cultural heritages, solid work ethics, and strong family ties. Systemic racism and discrimination, however, have resulted in disparate access to quality health, education, social, and economic resources, leading to higher rates of unemployment, poverty, and lower rates of educational attainment in these neighborhoods. As a tuition-free private school with minimal state funding, we rely entirely on the support of generous individual donors, corporations, and foundations to carry out our mission. I am grateful for the opportunity to apply for this fellowship and for your consideration of my proposal. Thank you.

 

Timeline of Planned Fellowship Activity

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April-June, 2023

● Create detailed research goals and investigate existing garden-based-learning climate change curriculum

● Host Climate Week in Epiphany’s garden in June

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July-August, 2023:

● First visit to Truelove Seeds, Philadelphia, PA (2 weeks)

● Attend Climate Generation’s Summer Institute For Climate Change Education

● Plan and lead “Teaching Climate Justice In The Garden” professional development session for middle school teachers during orientation week

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September-December, 2023:

● Host NOFA/Mass soil health workshop

● Second visit to Truelove Seeds (5 days)

● Plan and lead “Seed Keeping + Climate Resilience” mini units across grades and subjects at middle school, with a focus on the how and why of collecting seeds

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January-March, 2024:

● Plan and lead “Seed Stories + Climate Justice” mini units across grades and subjects at middle school, with a focus on cleaning seeds, learning/telling stories, germination tests, and sharing seeds in conjunction with climate justice education

● Prepare to present about climate change education in the garden at garden-based learning conferences in the spring