November 22, 2024 — Throughout last year and continuing this year, Salem Garden Collaborative at Salem Elementary School has been transforming the school and community with a thriving garden and educational hub. Thanks to the collective effort of community members, local organizations, and school leadership, the project has been recognized as the “Community Collaboration Project of the Year” at the 2024 Growing to Green Harvest Awards from Franklin Park Conservatory.
"This project is amazing because it's been done, built, and maintained by Salem's community, students, and parents," said Farm to Table Coordinator Katie Young. "They had to get approvals from buildings and grounds and district approvals, which took months. But they didn't give up and wrote grant after grant to raise the funds for all of this. The community engagement is like nothing I've seen at any other school around a garden. They've got a special thing here, and I'm excited to see it grow and thrive."
Launched in the fall of 2023, the Salem Garden Collaborative grew from a community vision to cultivate fresh produce and a shared space for learning and engagement. Neighbors from Salem Elementary and Salem Village, along with other community members, initially set out to revitalize an old raised bed garden on campus. This cleanup effort sparked a broader vision, leading to the collaborative development of a full-scale garden project.
"This is a unique project because it's bringing the neighborhood and the school together," said parent and Salem Garden Collective leader Stephanie Wheeler. "We have people involved with our garden collaborative who don't have kids attending school, but they're here. We have brought them out, gotten them engaged in serving their community, and brought a new demographic of people who weren't engaged before."
The project gained momentum over the winter months through grants, planning, and partnerships. With support from the Columbus City Schools (CCS) Farm to School program, Region 4 Area Superintendent Dr. Keith Harris, Salem Elementary Principal Nikki Myers, and technical guidance from Franklin Park Conservatory’s Growing to Green Program, the team broke ground in May 2024. Greenscapes Landscaping contributed a professional design, enhancing the site to function as both a garden and community space.
"Investing in schools is so important," said community member Diana Morawetz. "Having the garden [at Salem] is exciting, it's a place where the kids can learn about gardening, food, and nature."
The garden initiative has quickly become a focal point for whole-child learning at Salem Elementary. More than 80 students and 12 parents have joined the Salem Garden Collective, participating in hands-on gardening activities during recess and after school. Teachers at Salem Elementary use the garden to enrich lessons, weaving garden-based projects into science, nutrition, and art activities.
Engagement extends beyond school walls. Over the past year, the Salem Garden Collective has held 13 community events, inviting neighbors for garden tours, produce tastings, and art displays featuring student work. Each event strengthens connections among community members, fostering a shared investment in local education and well-being.
“I feel honored to have brought this to the community,” Wheeler said. “Every time we're out here, it's so exciting to see what's growing, to see what bugs are crawling around, to harvest what's ready.”
The Salem Garden Collaborative demonstrates the power of grassroots collaboration to enhance school and community environments. By creating spaces where students, families, and neighbors can work together, Columbus City Schools reinforces its commitment to whole-child development and community-driven success.
As schools nationwide seek to engage their communities, the Salem Garden Collective offers a blueprint for sustainable, locally led projects that benefit students and neighborhoods alike.
