Food Forests for Schools

We're honored to be the first-ever $1 million USD TD Ready Challenge grant winner for our Edible Eco-Labs to Accelerate Learning programming!

We invite you to watch the video we created as part of our submission to the TD Ready Challenge. In it you will learn more about the successes of our Edible Outdoor Eco-Lab program and how we will use the TD Ready Challenge Grant to ameliorate learning loss in math and help students thrive.

The Education Fund's Edible Outdoor Eco-Labs tap into nature to teach core knowledge!

Nature can often be the best teacher. That's the premise of The Education Fund's Edible Outdoor Eco-Labs to Accelerate Learning program. 

The Edible Outdoor Eco-Lab is among The Education Fund’s most successful programs, improving 67% of students’ science achievement by using the great outdoors. Through the program, we install ‘Food Forests’, with trees, bushes, plants, and paths, on school grounds and then demonstrate to schools how to use them as outdoor classrooms. Students learn soil science, photosynthesis, physics, and other science concepts as well as healthy eating habits and nutritional knowledge that will last a lifetime.  

"We've seen tremendous learning loss from the COVID pandemic, especially in math," Linda Lecht, president of The Education Fund, explained. The TD Ready Challenge grant will allow us to "take a huge step forward, significantly expanding these outdoor classrooms into math-labs that use the power of forest gardens to teach students," Lecht said. "If you've ever tried to learn math by just reading about it and trying to visualize the concepts in your head, it can be difficult. Getting students outdoors in these environmental Eco-labs means that they're going to be learning in a different space, using materials from nature that truly open their minds."