SFS Awarded Whole Foods Market Foundation Grant to Enhance the Adventure Playground Garden

The San Francisco School’s Adventure Playground is home to landscaped trees that students can climb, a hillside slide, a Field Station space that brings STEAM learning to life, a barn with chickens and goats in the springtime, as well as sand areas for free play. The Whole Foods Market Foundation has awarded SFS with a Garden Grant to enhance the edible garden in the Adventure Playground.

Ami Jamerson, Lower School STEAM Teacher, facilitates garden use, maintenance, and lessons. The focus of the outdoor space will center on stewardship, where students gain knowledge and agency in caring for the outdoor space and tending to their edible garden. Ami shares, “The garden will offer an experiential space for students to explore nutrition, food security, conservation, and local ecology. By planting, tending, and harvesting crops, students will gain hands-on knowledge about healthy eating and the science behind food.

This grant will support SFS in establishing a garden committee to maintain the garden space, ensure sustainability, and connect it to our STEAM curriculum using Life Lab resources. It will also fund the repair and maintenance of garden beds with herbs, edible flowers, fruit, edible bushes, and vegetables, fostering student ownership and responsibility. In addition, the grant will provide essential tools, including a watering system, shed, shovels, gloves, watering cans, and a worm bin, to create a fully functional outdoor learning space.

SFS students in Preschool through 5th grade participate in gardening as part of the STEAM curriculum 1-2 times per week in the outdoor Field Station.

Our garden offers a space that caters to the neurodiverse needs of our students, providing differentiated ways to engage with science and engineering. For students who benefit from movement, the garden gives them the freedom to move and explore. Its multisensory nature supports inclusivity, offering students moments of calm, like tasting citrus or breathing in lavender, which helps build self-regulation skills. Adding edible plants allows all students, regardless of learning profile, to connect with what they eat. We're also incorporating culturally diverse foods, reflecting the rich makeup of our community. This project creates an inclusive, hands-on environment where every student can feel a sense of belonging.