A TASTE OF HOME
It's about healing.
Leader
Carol Dallas
Location
755 Fulton Street Aurora, CO 80010
About the project
FULTON Academy of Excellence is an elementary pilot school in Aurora, Colorado. Launching our community garden will be the combined effort of our Garden Leadership Team, consisting of students, parents, neighbors, teachers, Central Baptist Church (partner), City of Aurora, Denver Urban Garden (DUG), and Aurora Public Schools. Our goal is to raise $5006 in online donations. If we don’t get the money in time, we’ll have to wait until the summer of 2016. Will you help us to grow our garden this coming season?
The Steps
April 2014 – community readiness survey
May 2014 – city walk-through to choose location
July-August 2014 – survey teachers, students; convene Leadership Committee
September 2014 – input from all stakeholders, design workshop for Leadership Committee
October 2014 – community meeting open to the public to discuss plans and solicit feedback
November 2014 – fundraising begins in concert with district grants office
December 2014 – Denver Urban Garden drafts a “blueprint” and creates a line item budget
February 2015 – second community meeting to present design and budget
June 2015 – break ground
September 2015 – construction complete - just in time for the school year!
Why we‘re doing it
Ninety-two percent of FULTON Academy students receive free and reduced lunch. They are inner city and speak twelve languages in addition to English: Karen, Nepali, Burmese, Mon, Amharic, Arabic, Swahili, Chuukese, Tigrinya, Oromo, Punijabi and Spanish. When some of our refugee parents were asked about their interest in a community garden, they immediately began pulling up photos of vegetables on their cells and asking, “Can you grow THIS in Colorado?” Many are displaced farmers from all over the world, and obviously this was about more than growing food. It was about regaining a little piece of what used to be home. When offered their own plot of land and free seeds from Denver Urban Garden (DUG), they acted as if they’d won the lottery. This was the first time that these diverse communities from Africa and Asia appeared to truly be collaborating. In addition Aurora Mental Health therapists who counsel our students have asked to use the space for “garden therapy.” Some of our students have experienced what no one should have to go through.