Growing Wylde: An Evening Benefiting Wylde Center

Join Wylde Center’s Board of Directors on Monday, October 7 at 6:30 PM for an exclusive evening at one of Decatur’s favorite restaurants, SCOUT, to celebrate our work in the community. The evening will include games, drinks, hors d’oeuvres, a Wylde program spotlight, and an opportunity to support our work of reaching more kids, planting more gardens, and bringing more programs to our community.

Current Growing Circle members will receive complimentary admission to this event as well as access to a pre-event cocktail hour at 5:30 PM.

Event tickets for the general public are $75 and include beer, wine, cocktails and appetizers. Purchase your event tickets HERE.

All funds from this year’s event will support our Farm to School initiatives in Decatur and Atlanta.

Unable to attend the event but still interested in supporting our cause? Donate to support Wylde Center’s Farm to School Initiatives HERE.
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LEARN MORE about Wylde Center‘s Farm to School initiatives in Decatur & Atlanta:

Decatur Farm to School (DF2S) is a Wylde Center program that works to improve nutrition, knowledge of where food comes from, hands-on outdoor education, environmental awareness, and appetite for fresh fruits and veggies by leading efforts in the classrooms, cafeterias, communities, and gardens of the City Schools of Decatur. The DF2S committee is led by parents, teachers, community members, Wylde staff members and has been active since 2010.

Based out of the Edgewood Community Learning Garden, the Wylde Center’s Atlanta Farm to School program brings the same model of programming from Decatur Farm to School to 10 different Title I Atlanta Public Schools. Our Atlanta Farm to School program works to introduce families to new foods, increase their knowledge of where food comes from, and instill a love and respect for the outdoors while creating a welcoming greenspace in an urban area.

Where does your money go?

$50 sends a monthly Wylde Center Farm to School enewsletter to our teachers, schools, and families. The newsletter includes seasonal garden and produce tasting tips, curriculum ideas on incorporating the school garden into the classroom, and information about funding opportunities as well as citizen science projects. A monthly enewsletter allows Wylde Center Farm to School to reach teachers across Georgia and around the country, resulting in more children learning in school gardens, tasting vegetables, and improving eating habits over time.

$125 funds one teacher attending a Wylde Center teacher training in 2020. In 2018, two Wylde Center educators attended farm to school training intensive with the purpose of bringing what they learned back to our Georgia teachers through our Wylde Center teacher trainings. Through the course, teachers gain deeper understanding of ways to engage students in school garden and classroom using Farm to School principles. As a result, teachers also become advocates for Farm to School and outdoor education at their schools. More advocates means more children learning outside.

$250 funds a taste test at one school. Wylde Center loves taste tests and so do the children! Two times a year, Wylde Center organizes school-wide, one-day taste tests of a seasonal vegetable that is usually a new to the students. The students taste and vote on whether or not they liked it and if they would eat it again. The post taste-test response is amazing! Wylde Center is flooded with parent emails asking where they can find the vegetable and how it was prepared. Now that their child has tried the vegetable, they want it at home. Success!

$500 sponsors one summer Farm to School intern from the Atlanta Public Schools or City Schools of Decatur. For 7 years, the Farm to School internship program has placed 3 Decatur High School students in summer internships in the local food movement – at a farm, at a community farmers market, or at a farm to table restaurant. At the end of the internship, the students report on what they learned and their new appreciation for what it takes to grow food. Students leave their internship with a passion local food and often end up working for their host site once the summer is over. In 2020, Wylde Center is expanding the internship program for three students in Atlanta Public Schools.

$1000 provides 6 months of Farm to School programming in an underserved school. Wylde Center’s education team is in high demand for Farm to School lessons and garden support. Schools want their children to have these educational opportunities, but lack the resources to provide them. This is often the case for our schools with a high free and reduced lunch rate located in low income areas of Atlanta. Your support will allow us continue serving these schools and expand to serve others, including a school in south Atlanta where teachers plan to send produce grown at school home with students. We can get behind that. Will you join us?