Hawai‘i Island School Garden Network (HISGN)
School gardens on Hawai‘i Island connect our keiki to real food, healthy eating habits, their academics, community and the ‘āina.
We are pleased to announce our new HISGN Technical Assistance Request Form! This document allows school garden teachers to request material resources, garden advice, connections to volunteers, curricular resources and more! Please share with garden coordinators, teachers and administrators who may be in need of support.
At more than 60 public, private, and charter schools across the island, school gardens are producing food and unique opportunities for students and their school communities to enjoy.
From breezy South Kohala to tropical Hilo, and from sunny South Kona to verdant Hāmākua, school gardens provide an educational environment to connect students to their place and to their studies in unparalleled ways. School gardens are experiential outdoor laboratories for students to deepen their relationship to nature, understand and apply science and mathematics, develop healthy eating habits, incorporate social studies and language arts, perpetuate Hawaiian cultural practices, and learn to become stewards of the land.
The Hawaiʻi Island School Garden Network (HISGN) provides a network of support to teachers, educators, administrators, and more, offering professional development, advocacy, mentorship and technical assistance, to expand the use of ʻāina (land) based initiatives in schools across the state.
Did you know?
The first school garden in the state was started at Hilo Boys and Girls School in 1853, followed by Lahainaluna School on Maui. By 1910 every school in Hawai’i had a garden integrated into the curriculum. School gardens lasted into the early 1970s, with food going into the school cafeteria lunch program feeding families and children.
Lets get back to this!
HISGN is a member of the larger Hawai‘i Farm to School Hui which was started in 2010 in response to the growing farm to school movement and the creation of the five island-level networks.
School gardens are a safe context for social emotional learning where children experience teamwork, apply resilience, witness the impact of their work over time, and develop a deep connection to nature; all of which contributes to their overall well-being. Especially in light of the pandemic and altered educational system, school gardens will be an essential tool for safe in-person instruction and recovering students.
This historical video was created in 2017 to highlight HISGN when it was housed by The Kohala Center. Mālaʻai is proud to have been involved with HISGN since the beginning in 2007 and continues to work towards the same vision of having a well-trained, well-paid garden teacher in every school on Hawaiʻi Island.
*Video production by Palikū Documentary Films | http://palikudocfilms.com
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Professional Development
HISGN hosts diverse professional development workshops during the school year on topics ranging from how to start a classroom worm bin to teaching climate change to students. We create opportunities that are experiential, meaningful, and immediately applicable in classrooms and schools. Training is based on realistic expectations such as time and resources and aligned with State and National Standards. Since 2013, HISGN has facilitated Kū ‘Āina Pā, an intensive week-long, school garden teacher training program for Hawai‘i Department of Education PDE3 credit. This training utilizes the Hawaii School Garden Curriculum Map which provides integrated lesson plans and assessment tools that connect school garden activities with the different DOE standards (Common Core, NGSS, Hawaiʻi Health Standards, and STEM Learning).
Advocacy
HISGN gives a voice to our islandʻs learning gardens by sharing success stories and strategies on behalf of our educators to those in leadership. This includes advocating with principals and administrators as well as politicians. As a part of the statewide Hawaii Farm to School Hui, we are part of a collective that has access to policymakers and the power to lobby decision-makers to support our movement statewide. We also are part of larger grants written to support learning gardens across the State. Successes include the passing of the Hawaii Farm to School Bill in 2015 and the P-20 Agriculture Education Working Group that was formed with UH CTAHR. Learn more about the history of the Hawai’i school garden movement and it’s revitalization since 2000⟶
Mentorship and Technical Assistance
The crux of our work is to provide useful resources and personalized support. We offer online resources as well as opportunities for mentorship and individual technical assistance. Just getting started and have some specific questions? Using our network and resource map, we can help link you to an experienced school garden educator in your area. In order to implement best practices for agriculture, horticulture, soil health, classroom management, and safety we also offer technical assistance through email, phone calls or site visits (when possible). Contact us for more information.