Help us continue our curriculum based programming at North Georgetown Elementary, Longneck Elementary, Southern Delaware School of the Arts, and expand to Howard T. Ennis School!

Our mission is to transform Sussex County schoolyards into vibrant outdoor classrooms and thriving ecosystems where students of all backgrounds and ethnicities have equitable access to structured hands-on STEM learning and health education. Our programming sends a SNAC Educator to each school we serve to allow for total immersion and engagement in the garden for every student, rather than the garden existing on solely the peripheral of the busy school environment. 

The SNAC Garden Foundation has been running a curriculum-based garden for over 10 years at Southern Delaware School of the Arts in Selbyville, DE. In 2020, due to the overwhelming needs for alternate outdoor learning due to COVID-19, we expanded our organizational capacity through grants from the USDA and other private foundations to install our garden model in two new schools: North Georgetown Elementary and Longneck Elementary. We are excited to expand our programming to Lord Baltimore Elementary through your generosity.  

We foster a connection to the environment and community through integrated lesson plans including ecological stewardship, healthy habits, mindfulness in the garden, and art engagement. Studies have shown that students exposed to fruits and vegetables through a school garden are more likely to incorporate them into their eating habits later in life.  We ensure that every student has equitable access to the garden through weekly lessons with a garden educator. Each student goes outside a minimum of 12 times a year. For $20, you can sponsor a classroom to go outside and spend an hour with one of our trained SNAC educators! An hour in the SNAC Garden is like a field trip where students don't even have to leave the school yard. 

We serve the schools of Longneck Elementary, North Georgetown Elementary, Howard T. Ennis, and Southern DE School of the Arts, which totals to approximately 2,200 students who learn in the garden on a regular basis every year. Part of SNAC’s key to success is providing teaching support with trained garden educators. When we’re invited into a school, we come in and say, ‘Give us the time with the students and we’ll manage everything else that’s garden-related.’ That way, already overburdened teachers don't have an added thing to their plate, and can provide a deeper level of support to the educational benefits of a school garden.

What is something you’ve learned about gardens that you didn’t know before?

“Something I did not know about [before the SNAC Garden] is all of the nutrients that plants need.” – Damien, 5th grade 

“I learned that if you grow the same thing in the same spot every year it damages the soil.” – Victoria, 5th grade  

“I learned that there are more types of things to eat and that the SNAC garden is awesome.” Za’Kaiya, 4th grade 

“I learned that Native Americans used the ‘three sisters’ method of companion planting in their gardens.” – Alianna, 5th grade 

“If you bury something it changes form and the way it looks.” – Leah, 5th grade 

“If we put plastic in the garden it will never decompose.” – Lilly, 5th grade 

“How plants live and feed themselves with sunlight.” – Kendall, 4th grade 

“I learned that radishes grow seeds in pods and that we eat them from the root.” – Kimberly, 4th grade  

Read more about the SNAC Gardens on Delaware Today!