Kayam Jewish Gardening Collective
Organization
Kayam Jewish Gardening Collective, Riverstown, MD
Grant Year
2010
Project Director
Jakir Manela
Type of Grant
Signature
Grant Amount
$50,000 (2 years)
The Kayam Jewish Gardening Collective enabled a diverse group of Jewish institutions in the Baltimore area to create educational gardens or orchards as venues to use Kayam-developed curricula focused on Jewish environmental values and teachings.
Through this grant, ten gardens were established representing a variety of demographic groups (early childhood, college students, special needs, seniors, and different synagogue denominations). Garden captains from each institution attended seasonal trainings, which involved lesson-plan modeling, lectures and discussions, and hands-on gardening. Participating organizations entered the program with the notion of building community through gardening and Jewish education.
As a result of this project, The Pearlstone Center has begun offering teacher trainings and professional development around educational gardening and created a resource manual to be used by schools and synagogues across the country.