SFS Donates to Hawthorne Elementary School Garden Project
This summer, Bella Luna Farms and Upper Left Catering generously hosted a series of dinners to raise funds for our chapter. The proceeds gave us the great opportunity to make a donation to Hawthorne Elementary’s school garden project.
For the past four consecutive years, Hawthorne Elementary School has been awarded the John Hopkins University’s National Network of Partnerships Schools (NNPS) Award in recognition of excellent and sustained programs of school, family and community partnerships. NNPS praised Hawthorne Elementary as an “emerging national leader on partnership program development.” Hawthorne’s school garden project, led by industrial designer and parent lead Peter Schumacher and Friends of Hawthorne (FOH) co-president Behnosh Najafi, is a complete re-imagination of the school’s outdoor space. The school yard is becoming “a community gathering place, a place to connect with the outdoors and a place for open-ended learning.”
The project’s well-designed plan is extensive and includes planting hundreds of native plants and trees, renovating the educational vegetable garden, creating neighborhood gathering spaces, replacing the asphalt with natural wood fibers and building a green infrastructure to address playground issues like flooding and freezing. The three-year timeline comprises of several upcoming community meetings, planting days and construction phases.
Get involved and make a difference.
UPDATE: Community Playground fundraiser for Phase 2! Friends of Hawthorne PTA have already secured $240,000. A group of passionate supporters will match all donations dollar-for-dollar for the remaining $50,000 needed. With your financial contribution, the garden can become a reality!
Check out the garden event page for community gatherings, meetings and volunteer opportunities.
To donate funds, helping hands or expertise in grant writing, contact Friends of Hawthorne.
If you have questions, ideas or would like to help with onsite projects, contact Peter Schumacher at Schumacher.p.j@gmail.com.
From left to right: Parent lead Peter Schumacher; Slow Food Seattle Advisory Council Member Ron Askew; Friends of Hawthorne Co-president Behnosh Najafi; and Slow Food Seattle Executive Director Kim Abrams-Marshall.