Baby Sprout
Educational Version
To expand on our mission of “democratizing access to healthy food,” we decided to work with our lower school to integrate gardening in 5th grade students’ science classes. The MintBox EDU curriculum is a one month learning experience where students learn about the importance of urban gardening firsthand.
How it started
We decided to create an educational version of the Baby Sprout aimed at elementary school students in light of the pandemic and our experiences in taking classes online. After meeting with teachers in Avenues's Lower Division, we realized that our negative experience was ubiquitous and exacerbated in the case of education for younger students. Sitting behind a screen all day, kindergartener through third graders alike were missing out on the opportunity to move around and learn kinetically. In the spring of 2021, we introduced a few of our first edition Baby Sprout gardening kits to a class of first graders who had spend almost a full academic year social distancing and taking classes online. They were a hit! Soon after, we continued working with Avenues classes to modify the Baby Sprout into a tool that was fun and engaging to work with for students and satisfied the curricula requirements of teachers.
How it's going
Now, about two years later, we are working with the Covenant House to introduce the Baby Sprout EDU to classes of students ranging from elementary to high school. So far, we have produced and donated 50 kits to four homeless shelters in Manhattan and the Bronx.
By the numbers
Impact
75 EDU Kits Donated
Partnerships
Avenues Lower School & Covenant House
Students Reached
120
Nov 2021
EDU class at Avenues lower school
Ethan and Zenchang are introducing MintBox to the 5th grade science class. They are also explaining the importance of urban gardening, and showing the Baby Sprout EDU instruction manual.
Aug 2023
Delivering EDU kits to Covenant Houses
We are delivering 50 Baby Sprout EDU kits to four different Covenant House homeless shelters. We also finally got the chance to meet with our Covenant House colleagues in-person!