Del Norte County School Gardens

Starting in 2022, Del Norte & Tribal Lands Community Food Council (DNATL CFC), in collaboration with Del Norte School District, has been activating and building school gardens supported by Klamath Promise Neighborhood. 5 school gardens joined Garden Explorers, the club that brought back food education and hands-on garden activities. After helping create these outdoor classrooms, DNATL CFC was awarded the California Farm to School Incubator Grant Program, which allowed us to include 2 more schools to our program. We serve ‘O Me-Nok Learning Center in Klamath, Joe Hamilton Elementary School, Crescent Elk Middle School, Bess Maxwell Elementary School, Pine Grove Elementary School, Sunset High School, and Smith River Elementary School. Supporting our students, our tribes, our educators, our school system, through garden and cooking lessons, we are strengthening our local food system, making our youth more resilient and active.

Our Achievements

  • Supported and developed school and community gardens across the county.
  • Worked with 100 students on year one, 300 students on year two, and more than 400 students in 2025/2026 school year. 
  • Enriched classrooms of 14 teachers and 4 Expanded Learning Programs a year.
  • Implementing 3 different school curriculums: The Growing Classroom by Life Lab, Nutrition to Grow On, by , and Junior Master Gardener’s curriculum. 
  • We are helping  the School District to bring new School Garden Coordinators to their programs.
  • We’ve created a School Garden Summer Camp so Expended Learning Program could bring more than 170 students. 
  • We have built 5 school gardens and 2 more and on the way. 
  • We are helping connect our producers to our students.
  • We are integrating culturally relevant lesson to our curriculum, making sure we are consciously including our Tribes, Latino and Hmong knowledge.