I wasn’t the only Georgia Peach in the House!  Shown above:  Green Law’s Executive Director, Stephanie Stuckey Benfield ; EPA Regional Administrator, Gwen Fleming-Keyes; and me.

I was honored to be invited to the 2nd Annual White House Women and the Environment Summit on March 21, 2013. I arrived the day before the summit and was graciously hosted by my sister friend Akiima Price of Price Consulting.  If you are doing any work with youth of color and environmental literacy, you must check out her publication, …

Students, teachers, parents, and the general community all came together on Saturday March 16th, 2013 for the Outdoor Garden kick-off of Knight Elementary School, Lilburn Georgia.  The event was advertised previously throughout the school and through media outlets such as the AJC (Print Edition 2/22/13), Gwinnett Daily Post, and the Lilburn-Mountain Park Patch (2/22/13).

A lot of ground work had been done by teachers and staff, including two beautiful “garden beds!”

Participants started arriving promptly at 9am, and very soon the school was humming with activity. Members …

On January 26th participants gathered to prune the orchard at Centennial Place Elementary School. This process proved to be, not only a science, but also and art. Kyla Zaro-Moore provided us with a handout that described and illustrated the proper techniques for pruning a variety of fruit trees. The purpose of pruning a young tree is to control its shape by developing a strong, well-balanced framework of scaffold branches.

Upon completion of the pruning process, Kyla remarked, “You may have noticed they look a bit, well, …

After a rigorous solicitation and review process, Greening Youth Foundation (GYF) in partnership with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would like to announce that Knight Elementary and Bethesda Elementary Schools have been selected to receive the Master Garden/C.L.E.A.N. Grant.  In partnership with EPA, GYF will be working with these two schools to promote environmental stewardship and help to develop knowledgeable and responsible students, teachers, and citizens.

Throughout the 2013 school year, stakeholders from each school community will meet regularly to establish and implement a sustainable garden …

Bells ringing, long staff meetings, and grading papers were some of my least favorite moments of my day as a former elementary school teacher. All of those tasks left little room for me to enjoy some of my favorite parts of teaching, such as students being engaged, asking questions and coming to conclusions. Deciding to part ways as a classroom teacher to pursue some of my personal goals allowed the opportunity for me to join Greening Youth Foundation team.

As an educator, I quickly realized how …

 On Sunday, December 9th, Greening Youth Foundation, in partnership with The Fruit Tree Planting Foundation, brought a beautiful orchard to Centennial Place Elementary School located in downtown Atlanta.  Under the direction of Kyla Zaro-Moore from Sustenance Design,

                      community resources were assembled to embark on a wonderful day of planting a variety of fruit trees.  Again, we see a dedicated administration, faculty, parents, and students determined to invest in their future by providing generations of students with environmental education …

There was “plant-i-ful” participation at the Kindezi Elementary “Garden Party” Kick-off on Saturday, December 1, 2012.  Under a sunny, blue sky, parents, children of all ages, administration, teachers, and other volunteers gathered at 10:00 A.M. to begin the second phase of the Greening Youth Foundation EPA/Forest Service C.L.E.A.N. Garden Grant Project.  With the supervision of Amakiasu Ford-Howze from Truly Living Well, 10 raised beds were constructed within courtyard 1 and on the side of the school.

Students receiving instruction

Amakiasu leading the day’s …

A little rain couldn’t stop campers from “roughing it” out on the green space of the Martin Luther King National Historic site. In celebration of National Public Lands Day (September 29th) some 40 students joined the Greening Youth Foundation (GYF) and National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF) for an “Urban Campout Experience.” The campers, who came from high schools across the metro-Atlanta area, participated in an evening full of music, dance, art, and inspirational dialog.

At the “Urban Campout” the campers were able to leave the hustle …