Main Campus (K-12), 2801 Keystone Road, Tarpon Springs, FL 34688
Phone: (727) 934-0909

Seed-to-Table Garden

The Solid Rock Community Garden operates to transform the hearts, minds, and eating habits of our school through a seed-to-table education program. Founded in the 2020-2021 school year, SRCS has developed a seed-to-table program that is fully integrated into the school week, teaching hands-on gardening to support a culture of health and wellness throughout the school.

School gardens have entered the national spotlight as an effective way to promote lifelong healthy eating habits and connect students to the natural world. Through gardening, students become responsible caretakers. They have an opportunity to engage in agricultural practices and learn about the responsibilities and impacts of land cultivation. They explore the web of interactions among the living and non-living players that sustain life.

Educators and researchers have noted many benefits to students participating in school garden programs, including:

  • Increased opportunity for hands on, inquiry, observation, and experimentation
  • Promotes physical activity
  • Increased opportunity for quality outdoor experiences
  • Increased consumption of fruits and vegetables
  • Improvement in attitudes toward fruits and vegetables
  • Improvement in science achievement scores
  • Improvement in social skills and behaviors
  • Improvement in environmental attitudes, and instillation of respect for nature
  • Positive impact on student achievement and behavior
  • Gardening strengthens children’s immune systems
  • Increased physical activity and better eating habits reduce obesity

The school garden offers a place to enrich teaching efforts with powerful hands-on experiences that make learning come alive. The Solid Rock Community Garden, a seed-to-table program, is designed to be sustainable and to use the physical site and available resources to their fullest. Students will grow, sow, tend, and harvest produce for the school plant-based kitchen and our “One Meal a Day” lunch program.

Our school garden consists of 6 large raised beds, 4 vertical gardens, 12 solar powered aeroponic tower gardens, a variety of trellis gardens, a mixture of container gardening, micro-green gardening, and a solar powered greenhouse for seedlings.