When students in the Food, Farming and Sustainability class at Environmental Charter High School found that they didn’t have access to land where they could put their ideas into practice, they decided to do something about it.

Environmental Charter High School (ECHS) is an urban public high school serving low-income students in Pittsburgh, USA. Finding inspiration in their Food, Farming and Sustainability class, a group of students decided to create a school garden to put the ideas they were learning about into action. What started as a discussion around access to food, health and education, led to the creation of a green space that will be used to not only support learning around nutrition and food sources, but also promote outdoor education and beautify the school grounds and surrounding community.

Through this Alcoa W5 project, 13 ECHS students began by working together to survey and evaluate possible garden sites near their school, developing a design and materials that could be easily transported to a new school site in the future, as the current school space is rented from a church. They brainstormed garden layouts and plans, sourced materials to build their garden, and grew plants from seed. The result: four beautiful raised garden beds created and built by the students with the support of their teachers and school community. The raised beds are handicap accessible and available for the entire school or about 150 ECHS students to engage in outdoor learning. The students even established a garden club and watering and maintenance plan to ensure continued care of the gardens.

"Getting to work on a collective community project that everyone at our school will be able to enjoy and view was an amazing opportunity for our students and staff. Students were able to work together to build something tangible that will be reusable year after year!" - Donovan Brown, Teacher

This Alcoa W5 project was an opportunity for students to directly engage in hands-on, outdoor learning, creating a space for students who may normally not be heard to take on leadership roles. As a result, students gained practical garden planning and management skills that they’ll be able to draw from throughout their lives. Growing one’s own food, which had previously only been discussed in hypothetical terms in their Food, Farming and Sustainability class, became a reality for the students.

The Alcoa W5 project of Environmental Charter High School supports the following SDGs: