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Upcoming Grant & Training Opportunities!

Friday, May 24, 2013 | Filed under Sustainability and Funding
If you need assistant with funding or putting together lesson plans for your garden, you're in the right place! For a full list of grants and trainings, click here!

May 31: School Garden Grants from Annie's Homegrown

Annie’s Homegrown offers a limited number of small grants to school gardens. These funds can be used to buy gardening tools, seeds or other needed supplies.

Annie’s Homegrown focuses on giving to school garden programs that meet the following guidelines:
1. They donate only to K-12 schools located within the United States.
2. While there are many worthy causes, their grants are only available ...
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Blue Mesa Grill Dinner Benefiting Pershing Elementary's REAL School Garden

Tuesday, November 13, 2012 | Filed under Sustainability and Funding , Health and Nutrition , Community , Family Activities , REAL Supporters

Community Night is an opportunity for schools or not-for-profit groups to have a great fundraiser at Blue Mesa Grill. This Thursday evening, November 15, 2012 at 6:30 pm, Blue Mesa Grill in Addison is hosting a Community Night dinner benefiting the REAL school learning garden at John J. Pershing Elementary (Dallas ISD).

All friends and community members are invited to enjoy creations featuring spinach, lettuce and cilantro grown in the REAL school garden at John J. Pershing Elementary. Dinner will be $20.00 per person with 25% of the proceeds donated back to the Pershing school learning ...

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A Blooming Partnership Between REAL School Gardens and Paper Hat Press

Friday, August 10, 2012 | Filed under Sustainability and Funding , Language Arts , Art in the Garden , Family Activities

We are excited to announce a new partnership with Paper Hat Press, a publisher of beautiful personalized children's books. Paper Hat Press shares our mission of sparking children’s imaginations as they encourage a love of reading while showing a child how special they are. In honor of our “blooming” partnership, we wanted to highlight the amazing illustrations of flowers by Paper Hat Press artists.

In Paper Hat Press’ title, Little Sparkle, the beautiful Sparkle girl flies over lovely Purple Sensation allium flowers, pictured below.

(Photo courtesy of Paper Hat Press)

On another beautifully illustrated page, ...

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Backwoods Gives Back to the Community

Monday, November 21, 2011 | Filed under Environmental Stewardship , Sustainability and Funding , Community , REAL Supporters

We are honored to have been chosen by our local Backwoods outdoor sports gear retailer as their charity of choice for the 1% for the Planet initiative designed to support local environmentally-minded organizations. For the month of November, the purchase of Patagonia products at the Fort Worth Backwoods store will give REAL School Gardens an opportunity to be the recipient of a $3,000 donation from Backwoods and Patagonia’s 1% for the Planet campaign.

Getting kids outside is what we do. We know that not only does time spent outdoors have a positive impact on academic achievement and ...

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Building and Growing in Our Local Neighborhoods

Wednesday, November 16, 2011 | Filed under Sustainability and Funding , Community , REAL Supporters

On November 3, REAL School Gardens was honored to be named as one of two "Neighborhood Builders" in Tarrant County by Bank of America. This award is given annually to a non-profit which is addressing local neighborhood priorities in an innovative and effective way. We were recognized for our success using learning gardens to improve education at high-poverty elementary schools while at the same time promoting healthy habits and energizing community participation in schools.

We are excited to share with you a video created by Bank of America which shows more about our work and the impact it ...

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Get Energized - Grant Deadline this Friday!

Wednesday, October 12, 2011 | Filed under Engineering , Sustainability and Funding , Instructional Aids , Science

Our friends at First Choice Power wanted us to share with all of you that they have a $2,000 energy grant opportunity available for schools. The focus of these grants is energy efficiency, and First Choice Power is encouraging projects that provide opportunities for students to learn about different types of energy and how to conserve energy.

Solar energy is being harvested in the garden at Hobbs Williams Elementary in Grand Prairie!

So, if you've been thinking about getting a solar-powered water pump for your school's pond or if you have other ideas about how to incorporate energy (or ...

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Getting Up and Giving!

Friday, October 07, 2011 | Filed under Sustainability and Funding , Community , REAL Supporters

This year’s North Texas Giving Day was so successful that it has taken several weeks to count up all of the donations made to non-profits in our region. When the dust settled, the response to this year’s event was unprecedented and inspiring. On September 15, 600 North Texas non-profits received an amazing $10.7 million in donations.

The REAL School Gardens community seized this opportunity to make an investment in our children. 88 individuals from across North Texas—and across the United States—braved the crowded digital pathways to make gifts that will help keep our gardens growing. Together, ...

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What Teachers Plant Now, We Harvest Later

Tuesday, September 13, 2011 | Filed under Sustainability and Funding , Student Behavior , Educators

Growing up I remember spending countless hours playing outdoors. Whether it was making mud pies or helping my grandmother pick pecans in her backyard, I was always outside. It seems rare to see such behavior for kids in this electronic age. Left to their own devices (literally), many children are stuck indoors playing with the latest technology and have long forgotten the happiness that comes with being exposed to nature.

But every day there is an opportunity to get kids outside during school hours. Their schoolyard can be used for the same type of outdoor explorations I used ...

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So Many Seeds!

Friday, August 26, 2011 | Filed under Sustainability and Funding , Community , REAL Supporters

Our organization simply would not exist without the support and generosity of individuals, corporations, and other organizations willing to make donations to support our work.

This month, as we prepared to acquire the cool season seeds and transplants to distribute to our 81 partner schools across the Metroplex, we were given the opportunity to accept a donation from the local distributor of Botanical Interests seeds.

The aesthetic appeal of our downstairs was significantly enhanced by the thousands of colorful seed packets spread out over the tables and piled up in bags and boxes. Eric and Jeff took a ...

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Tacos n' Tequila

Wednesday, June 01, 2011 | Filed under Sustainability and Funding , Community , REAL Supporters

REAL School Gardens kicked off our new partnership with Blue Mesa Grill last week with two Happy Hour events in Fort Worth and Addison. It was a great success! Guests enjoyed delicious street tacos (and those amazing sweet potato chips!) and relaxed with friends, old and new, for a wonderful evening out. Ambhar Tequila was also there with samples of three of their signature tequilas. Thank you to everyone that came out and supported REAL School Gardens this past week—we couldn’t do what we do without help from generous supporters like you! We also want to thank Blue Mesa ...

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