School Garden Week is BACK for a second year! Join us in celebrating the amazing work being done in school gardens across the state, along with the benefits these gardens have on students, schools, early care centers, and communities. This week is a great opportunity to get out in your school garden and engage with it alongside schools and early care centers throughout Minnesota.
Celebration
Wondering how you can celebrate? The opportunities are endless! Some sites might choose to host a school garden party and invite students, staff, and community members to celebrate. Others might opt for garden-themed lessons or activities with students, like a garden scavenger hunt or insect identification activity. Planting seeds, doing garden maintenance, or simply spending time in a school garden are also great ways to celebrate. For more ideas, check out the daily suggested activities on the School Garden Week webpage.
Vegetable of the Year
Our Vegetable of the Year is squash, and this theme is another way to frame your celebrations! Squash is a great crop to plant in your school garden – their later harvest date (September-October) means students can be a part of the harvest and squash can be used in the lunchroom. If you’d like to incorporate squash into your School Garden Week celebrations, check out our list of squash recipes and educational resources. Plus, if you’re one of the first 100 people to register for School Garden Week, you’ll get a free packet of delicata squash seeds mailed to you!
Learning and webinars
School Garden Week is also an opportunity to cultivate new ideas, growth, and continued learning. In honor of this mindset, we’re hosting a webinar on getting produce from gardens onto lunch trays. You’ll hear from UMN Extension educator Annalisa Hultberg about practicing food safety in school gardens, and from a South High School teacher about what their garden to cafeteria program looks like. If you’re looking to get more garden produce onto students’ lunch trays, this webinar is a great place to start! Register for the webinar here.
Register
If your site is planning to celebrate School Garden Week, don’t forget to register! We want to know how you’re celebrating. If you’re one of the first 100 people to register, you’ll get a free packet of delicata squash seeds mailed to you. Plus, you’ll get your site added to our map of 2026 participants.
We can’t wait to celebrate School Garden Week with you!
