Kids Can Grow
Kids Can Grow, Mount Desert, in collaboration with Maine Coast Heritage Trust, 2020
– What volunteers will do on this project
Kids Can Grow is a five-month hands-on gardening program that teaches children ages 7-12 how to garden using square-foot gardening techniques. Every month, children meet at the community gardens at Maine Coast Heritage Trust (MCHT) in Somesville. There they break into three sessions: 1) the snack and nutrition lesson, 2) the garden lesson (such as soils, bugs, etc.), and 3) general garden maintenance (weeding, harvesting, etc.). The skills that they learn in the garden will be translated to their home gardens, which a Master Gardener Volunteer will help the child build, plant, and maintain. All the materials to build the raised bed at home (lumber, loam, seeds, seedlings) are provided by Kids Can Grow.
Volunteers will be able to choose from the following tasks and are encouraged to do more than one!
- Mentor one to two children and their family at the child’s home, and assist in building, planting, and caring for a raised bed.
- Teach a garden “class” during the monthly sessions. These are usually short presentations (half an hour) on topics such as soil, compost, how plants grow, etc..
- Maintain the garden and harvest food to donate to Harvest for Hunger.
- Grow seedlings for the Kids Can Grow program.
– What volunteers will learn on this project
Volunteers will learn:
- how to condense what they know about gardening into accessible and easy learning activities for both children and adults
- square-foot gardening techniques
- how to grow, care for, and harvest strawberries and vegetables, organically
– Expectations (in terms of attendance frequency and hours) of a Master Gardener who wishes to be considered for this team in 2020
All volunteers are expected:
- to attend monthly sessions at the MCHT. Sessions are from 4 – 6 on the second Tuesday of each month, but we request volunteers to come an hour early to set-up and help clean-up after each session is over.
- to attend the Volunteer Kick-Off session on April 14th, 2020, at MCHT’s office in Somesville.
Mentors are expected:
- to mentor two children and visit their homes at least once or twice a month for an hour each.
Non-mentoring volunteers are expected:
- to help maintain and care for the garden between monthly sessions.
- to sign up for bi-monthly garden check-in (approximately one hour with two – four children)
– the IDEAL number of volunteers for this team in 2020
Ideal number: 11
Eight mentors and three garden helpers.
Project Leader: Zabet Neucollins