School Food Gardens As a Force for Good

2013 - present

How We Engage with Preschools & Schools

Over the past decade, we have applied permaculture design principles to cultivate healthy, closed-loop communities that embrace nature through collaborative food cultivation in urban spaces.

We consult with preschools and schools to design, build, and co-create edible permaculture school gardens. Additionally, we deliver impactful, curriculum-aligned workshops for students and provide teacher training.

Our aim is to empower and connect school communities with nature and one another through shared food spaces, skills, and stories. We believe in fostering strong relationships and rapport with both students and teachers, collaborating closely with all educational institutions we work with.

Below are insights into some of our work with various schools, highlighting aspects of permaculture garden builds, programming, pedagogy, and nature-based education.

A Bug biodiversity workshop with our entomologist James Khoo with children from MINDS

Preschools

We have partnered with various preschools to give children their first hands-on experiences with nature. Interactive activities include playing with soil, working with worms, growing microgreens, and learning about seeds.

While preschoolers may be hesitant at first, a little encouragement from their teachers and demonstrations from us help them overcome the initial fear. They quickly become curious and fascinated with worms, soil, and growing food.

Introducing soil and its rich biodiversity in an accessible way is crucial for getting young children comfortable before exploring more advanced topics such as seeds, germination and growing food.

MINDS (Movement for the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore)

MINDS is a Singapore-based social agency serving intellectually disabled individuals. We collaborate with them to provide a series of permaculture gardening workshops focused on sensory engagement for their special education schools.

We adapted our permaculture modules for MINDS students by breaking them into bite-sized chunks, allowing more time for engagement and understanding of each concept.

Topics covered include seeds and germination, soil, and growing your own food. Our engagement with MINDS Towner Garden School's Gardening Co-Curricular Activity (CCA) Programme during the 2024 school term was highly successful.

Anderson Primary School (APS)

Our engagement with APS has been ongoing since 2020. We have found that long-term engagements yield the most significant impact when working with students.

We began with classroom lessons on soil and biodiversity and have since designed and co-created a permaculture school garden with the students and educators. We continue to support the school through workshops and by assisting in maintaining their permaculture learning garden.

Additionally, we support the GAIA after-school environment club with their worm bins. Students in this club have become competent in managing the worm composting stations, raising awareness about vermicomposting, and welcoming other classes to use the bins. They are now exploring sustainable business ideas based on the vermicompost they produce.

This is what ongoing permaculture education can yield!

International French School (IFS)

Again, our engagement with IFS has been a long-running one, starting in 2020.

Not only have we taught many of our popular permaculture modules from soil to bugs and biodiversity but we’ve also been able to expand on these modules to create cultural awareness by teaching students and teachers alike more about growing and consuming local herbs and vegetables.

We have trained some enthusiastic teachers at IFS, so they were able to understand what we were teaching the students and so that they could help problem solve and maintain the school raised planter bed gardens when the CC Team is off assisting other schools.

Permaculture programming continues to go strong after 4 years at IFS and their permaculture school garden is thriving - a testament to what commitment and dedication from a school, combined with support from Cultivate Central can achieve.

Hwa Chong Secondary Schools

We had Hwa Chong Junior College approach us to engage with their Co-Curricular Activities club members. To foster engagement and minimise top-down instruction, we designed a "permaculture blitz" as a team challenge, guiding students through each step intentionally.

The participants took part in a two-day permaculture workshop at our demonstrative permaculture space - Goodman Community Farm. The workshops focused on soil building and planting techniques. On the first day, students learned about soil building, using the "layering kuih lapis" method. The second day was all about plant guilds, sun paths, and plant placements.

We were happy to hear that after the two-day workshop, the students were inspired to build their own garden at school, applying the skills and knowledge they gained during the event.

Permaculture Modules

Below is a list of some of our signature permaculture pedagogy topics and related modules for educational institutions:

1. Worms:

• Worms Love Coffee
• Worms on Wheels

2. Soil:

• Soil and Society
• Soil Building - Kuih Lapis Method
• Urban Composting

3. Seeds and germination

• Yummy Microgreens
• Seed Cards and Seed Balls

4. Grow Food:

• Let’s Grow Rhizomes
• Start You Own Herb Patch

5. Bugs and Biodiversity:

• Friend or Foe

6. Permaculture:

• Patterns in Nature
• Sustainable Gardening Design & Principles
• Permaculture Living & 12 Design Principles

We have many more modules and are always adapting and expanding these to suit each school’s needs. If you’d like to work with us, do fill out the form below and we’ll be in touch!