Program plants green goals

Karen Gibson retired from teaching Burbank students in 2012 after spending 19 years at Bret Harte Elementary, but she hasn’t thrown in the educational towel just yet.

These days, she finds herself on a new mission, along with several other Burbank residents, parents, and educators to strengthen the way students use school gardens by increasing their knowledge and experience around growing fruits, vegetables and herbs.

For about the past two years, she’s connected with others who support school gardens to create the Burbank School Garden Network, an organization that aims to fold the gardens into students’ curriculum, especially as they learn about life sciences or nutrition.

As the chair of the garden organization, Gibson meets with members of the group’s steering committee on a monthly basis to discuss how they can better improve gardens, cultivate student and parent involvement and find outside financial support from businesses or companies that may be willing to offer discounted supplies or grants.

There are about 15 gardens across Burbank’s 20 schools, she said. While Burbank’s two alternative campuses have gardens, including Community Day School and Monterey High School, the two comprehensive high schools don’t have them yet.

One goal is to make sure that efforts by students, parents and volunteers in the gardens are consistent. Without ongoing collaboration and contribution, the gardens could turn into weed patches.

However, the network’s mission to promote the gardens doesn’t stop with the adults or parents who are needed once in a while to volunteer for an afternoon of work.

“The trick is that it can’t just be parents and volunteers doing everything and having the kids come out and look at it,” Gibson said. “That’s not where you get these benefits.”

At Stevenson Elementary, parent Claire Torrey has played a major role in overseeing kids’ active involvement in the garden where they have participated in tasting stations, sampling tomatoes and cucumbers. They’ve also taken in the scent of crushed herbs, and even set up a farmers market, Gibson said.

“I really credit Claire with developing a love of kale at Stevenson Elementary School,” Gibson said. “There are kids who love kale over there.”

One of Gibson’s goals is to establish a base curriculum that might be offered to teachers across Burbank to supplement learning in a way that would blend the outdoor and indoor classrooms.

She hopes that volunteers will step in to be trained in the curriculum, and offer their time when teachers could use assistance teaching students about plants, regardless of their grade level.

“If you’ve got a third-grader going around with a magnifying glass in the garden, you are looking at a pretty serious scientist,” she said.

The Burbank Educational Foundation has stepped up to serve as the network’s nonprofit fiscal partner as it aims to secure grants and donations from outside supporters.

In the meantime, Gibson is also working to set up a website, and with members of the network’s steering committee, raise the profile of the Burbank School Garden Network to build on its overarching effort to support and maintain all Burbank school gardens.