The Madison/Avanti Giving Garden (MAGG)
The Madison-Avanti Giving Garden was envisioned as an outdoor learning laboratory by collaborators from Madison Elementary School and Avanti High School communities. Teachers, principals, students, parents, and volunteers came together to help build this large raised-bed garden in the early spring of 2010.
Soon after the garden was established, the Cooking Cart program was developed to help teach Madison students about healthy living and eating. Along with learning how to cook with fresh produce in their classes, students attend 4-5 FarmStands every year. The Avanti high schoolers help the younger students with their fresh produce choices at FarmStand and also collaborate with Madison students during Garden Buddy activities.
The space has made quite an impact on the whole learning community while giving students an opportunity to experience hands-on and transformative education.
Check out the new Facebook Page!
Soon after the garden was established, the Cooking Cart program was developed to help teach Madison students about healthy living and eating. Along with learning how to cook with fresh produce in their classes, students attend 4-5 FarmStands every year. The Avanti high schoolers help the younger students with their fresh produce choices at FarmStand and also collaborate with Madison students during Garden Buddy activities.
The space has made quite an impact on the whole learning community while giving students an opportunity to experience hands-on and transformative education.
Check out the new Facebook Page!
The Sagan Satellite
The Sagan Satellite is a raised-bed vegetable and herb garden built in the spring of 2013 with the help of the local community, Avanti students, and a local non-profit GRuB. The garden was built as a supplementary learning and growing space (a ‘satellite’) to the larger Madison-Avanti Giving Garden located behind Madison Elementary school. Since that spring, the garden has exploded with life.
Students choose what to plant in each raised bed based on studies in companion planting and organic gardening techniques. Students help to tend the garden, harvest produce (to be donated to Thurston County Food Bank), and plant cover crops in preparation for the winter. Classes are held in the garden all year round, and we hope to host some community skill-building workshops in the future. Come summer time, we look for volunteers to help out with weeding, watering, and harvesting. Stop by and have a peek at the new addition to our school! |
"Science is much more than a body of knowledge. It is a way of thinking." Carl Sagan |
Events/Volunteer Opportunities
In the News!
- Our very own Avanti student received her Girl Scout Gold Award, an E3 Green Apple Award and the spotlight in The Olympian for her Pollinator Project.
- In SouthSound Green Pages bi-monthly environmental journal
- In ThurstonTalk
- Online picture slideshow of the Madison/Avanti Giving Garden being built
- Our FarmStand featured on Facebook by The Thurston County Foodbank