Partner

Become a SGN Partner SCHOOL Garden

SGN School Partner Program is FREE! We invite all Sonoma County schools to participate and become part of the larger school garden network. SGN Partner program affords your school a host of benefits including:

Discounts at local retailers including Harmony Farm Supply
Early announcements of free seeds and plants
Eligibility for SGN grants and mentorship packages

If you’re a Garden Coordinator and would like to update or add information for your school’s profile, please click the button below.

Update Your School Profile

2017/2018 Healthy Roots grant recipients

Parkside Elementary, Sebastapol CA: Saivya Birnbaum, Garden Coordinator

Saivya Birnbaum is the Garden Coordinator at Park Side Elementary and Brook Haven Middle schools in Sebastopol, California. Her love and dedication to beauty, nutritious food and teaching children are showcased in the garden programs she leads. She has helped expand the garden program to include garden based art, nutrition and cooking lessons, apothecary and herbal studies and a comprehensive school wide composting and recycling program. She teaches the students that practicing mindfulness is a key element in gardening and life.

Penngrove Elementary, Penngrove CA: Marianne Barrel, Garden Coordinator

A former 4-Her who won ribbons at the fair for her produce, Marianne still loves to grow food to eat. In addition to gardening, she raises Spring lambs, turkeys for Thanksgiving, and freezer pigs. Marianne belongs to the Sonoma County Beekeepers Association.

For 20 years, she’d been using the school vegetable garden beds at Penngrove School to garden with her 3rd through 6th grade classes, and is now on a leave of absence from classroom teaching. In the 2016/2017 school year she was able to focus on the development of a school wide Garden and Environmental Education Program.

In order to sustain that, Marianne is taking a second year’s leave and will add a nutrition education component to the program. The School Garden Network grant will go a long way toward realizing that goal.

Follow on Twitter to see what the Ss are up to this year!
Marianne Barrell @msbarrell #pennpannthers

Robert L. Stevens Elementary, Santa Rosa CA: Krista Gasper, Garden Coordinator

Krista got her start as a gardener during childhood visits to her grandparents’ Kansas home, where she helped her grandfather harvest and preserve home grown tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, and corn. After receiving a packet of seeds in fourth grade, she tried her hand at creating her own garden, enthusiastically cutting down a patch of grass on her family’s land, and spreading the seeds, which much to her chagrin, failed to grow.

Krista’s skills as a gardener have improved since then. She now knows that good gardening starts with building fertile soil and providing plants with the care and attention they need. Good gardening is a mindset. It takes patience and persistence, a willingness to try and to fail, and hopefully, to learn and succeed.

Krista works to inspire the next generation of gardeners and nature enthusiasts. She brings her garden skills and mindset to her teaching - building fertile ground for students to know and love the natural world, providing care and attention in developing meaningful garden programs, and practicing patience and persistence as she ever evolves her methods for inspiring learning.

Krista is currently the Garden Coordinator for two schools in west Santa Rosa, Wright Charter School and Robert L. Stevens Elementary. She has spent over 15 years working with youth in outdoor settings, as an Environmental Educator with LandPaths, Westminster Woods Science Camp, the Marin Conservation Corps, Team Oakland, and others. She holds an MA in Ecological Agriculture and a BA in History. She has owned and run her own vegetable farm, worked as a cook in a farm-to-table kitchen, and worked as a team building facilitator.

Valley Vista Elementary School, Petaluma CA: Heather Osbun, Garden & Nutrition Educator

Heather Osbun was introduced to healthy eating and good nutrition as a child. After a health scare in 2007 and the birth of her daughter in 2009, Heather became acutely aware of how important nutrition and healthy eating was for her body, mind and spirit. In 2015, Heather graduated at the top of her class from Santa Rosa Junior College and became a Registered Dietetic Technician. During her time at SRJC, Heather discovered that she enjoyed the preventative aspect of nutrition and wanted to teach children and families how to enjoy healthy foods. Heather believes that healthy eating can be exciting and fun. She is very passionate about sourcing food locally, seasonally and organically to help minimize the ecological footprint in Sonoma County. She has now combined her love for children and healthy eating to work as a Garden/Nutrition Educator at Valley Vista Elementary School in Petaluma.

In her free time, Heather enjoys cooking, hiking, singing and coaching her daughter’s soccer team.

In addition to these discounted services, SGN Affiliate Schools will receive a quarterly newsletter and early announcements of free seeds, plants and other resources. SGN continues to forge partnerships with more local retailers for additional discounts to schools.

Let us know if you can help with this effort!

To become an Affiliate of the School Garden Network Register Your School .
Must be a Sonoma County school to participate.

Questions? info@schoolgardens.org

​Register Your School

Become a SGN Partner SCHOOL Garden

Our School Garden Partners:

2017/2018 Healthy Roots grant recipients

Register Your School