Garden Education Program

Gardens Change Youth, Youth Change The World

1 in 5 students face health challenges resulting from an unbalanced diet. One Cool Earth is working to change this by growing healthy, delicious food and making nutrition both fun and accessible for all.

Our goal is to empower individuals from all backgrounds to develop lifelong habits that support their health and well-being.

Student Health

Outdoor living laboratories and project-based learning bridge the gap between textbooks and the real world. Gardens can help youth who struggle with learning science increase their test scores by up to 17%.

Student Academics

In a time when more students than ever feel disconnected from their school and community, gardens bring people together to make a difference and give space for exploration and play.

Student Wellbeing

Bring One Cool Earth To Your School

Choose What Program Tier Is Right For Your School

A Garden Educator spends 2 days per week dedicated to your school. They provide:
- Minimum of 6 classes taught weekly.
- Garden maintenance, planning, and project implementation.
- Monthly Garden newsletters for the school community.
- Partnership with PTA/PTO to ensure that school needs are met.
- Lesson extension activities to bridge garden education to in-classroom learning.
- Facilitation of two community-focused Garden Workdays per year.
- Included Add-Ons: Virtual Family Cooking Night, Green Team Coordination, School-Wide Waste Audit, Field Trip to Partner Organizations.
A Garden Educator spends 1 day per week dedicated to your school. They provide:
- Minimum of 3 classes taught weekly.
- Garden maintenance, planning, and project implementation.
- Monthly Garden newsletters for the school community.
- Partnership with PTA/PTO to ensure that school needs are met.
- Lesson extension activities to bridge garden education to in-classroom learning.
- Facilitation of two community-focused Garden Workdays per year.
- Included Add-Ons: Virtual Family Cooking Night, Student Green Team Coordination, Field Trip to Partner Organization.

Children and a woman holding up colorful flyers or drawings outdoors, with trees and a building in the background.

Your Garden Educator will supervise up to 15 students each week to enjoy the garden during their lunch recess (1x per week).
Virtually led by your Garden Educator, our Family Cooking Night includes all ingredients, materials, recipes, and instruction. Kids will learn how to cook delicious meals in their own kitchens!
Two-hour, One Cool Earth-led workdays. We will advertise the event to the school community, procure materials and recruit outside volunteers.
This mini-market provides garden produce to families. With the guidance of your Garden Educator, students will harvest garden goods, wash, and set up an after-school market.
Your garden educator will lead a full-day waste audit to determine how much waste is accumulated in a given day. Students will sort and weigh waste and learn how to classify and distinguish recycling, compost, and landfill items. Together, we will brainstorm waste reduction strategies to adopt on campus.
This is a two-hour, after-school event for teachers and school staff. Join our One Cool Earth Team in your school garden and learn how to use our curriculum, receive a lesson kit to share with your class, discuss techniques in engaging the school community in garden efforts, set goals for garden projects, and learn more about how OCE operates on your campus.
An OCE employee will visit the garden 5x through out the summer to harvest, weed, prune and prep for the start of the school year. Summer programs can utilize the garden during this time. Includes a $100 Summer Garden Budget to cover plants, compost, soil and other garden needs.
Garden Educators lead enriching classes in the garden for summer school/ camps. Contact OCE for more information.
One Cool Earth will connect teachers to online field trip presentations. Pricing is dependent on the field trip. Reach out to learn more!
One Cool Earth will connect teachers to local field trip opportunities. Pricing is dependent on the field trip. Reach out to learn more!

2. Choose Your Educational Add-Ons

A young boy wearing a wide-brimmed hat, black shirt, and patterned shorts standing outdoors in a field with a shovel, planting or digging in the soil, with a backdrop of green hills and blue sky.

Children and adult decorating Easter eggs outdoors at a table with colorful eggs, cups, and craft supplies.

3. Explore Funding Options For Your School

Did you know that we subsidized over 50% of our program fee with grants, community, and foundation partnerships? Our goal is to make One Cool Earth programs as accessible as possible to schools in San Luis Obispo County. So, your school only pays for half of the funding needed from the school district, the school itself, and PTA/Os.

*Early bird pricing requires a signed contract by May 1st, 2026

Discounts available for district-wide and multi-year contracts.
Deadline to sign up for 2026-207 programming is June 15th, 2026.

Program discounts are available for district-wide contracts. Contact us directly at action@onecoolearth.org for more information!

School Program Fees For Different Program Tiers:

Premium Program:

$24,000/yr ($23,600/yr Early Bird Discount)*

Standard Program:

$14,200/yr ($13,900/yr Early Bird Discount)*

4. Interested? Email or Call Us!

Are you interested in bringing One Cool Earth to your school? We work with schools across San Luis Obispo County and beyond and would love to partner with you.

Email Us

Call Us

One Cool Earth Program FAQ

If you need clarification on what tier is right for you, please reach out to action@onecoolearth.org, and we will help you make an informed decision.
Our One Cool Earth Curriculum is designed to support NGSS performance expectations and is centered around three themes: Zero Waste, Water Wise, and Food Forest. This means your Garden Educator will lead hands-on environmental and nutrition lessons, as well as nature-connection activities, all while meeting high academic standards.
All of our Garden Educators are fingerprinted, trained in social-emotional learning, and complete a Mandated Reporting Training and Food Handlers training. Additionally, we only hire the most qualified Educators with experience working with kids and managing gardens. They have in-depth training at the start of the year, plus monthly follow-up training sessions to reinforce expectations and deepen their expertise.
Teachers have the opportunity to participate in Teacher Trainings led by One Cool Earth. They can reach out to the Garden Educator anytime, and they have access to a large database of lesson plans, video lessons, resource guides, and more on our website.
We believe that our program creates a culture of environmental literacy and stewardship at our partner schools, especially when there is the addition of a Green Team on campus and teachers are well-trained on how to use our resources for their own lessons. The campus and its systems are a tool to address food, water and waste as a whole community!
Some supplies will be provided within the cost of the program to ensure beautiful and bountiful gardens, but we always encourage the PTA/Os to pitch in for extra projects that might be more costly like construction of a rain capture system or expansion of the garden. Depending on the size of the garden, we recommend the PTA/O gives $250 - $1000 for supplemental supplies.
Glad you asked! We have many items that can be purchased as additional opportunities for your school. These include Family Cooking Nights, Field Trips and more. We also have extensive online resources that can be accessed for free.
Luckily, as a non-profit organization, we are able to help schools and districts take advantage of many available grants and sponsorship opportunities. We are happy to discuss funding opportunities that may support the sustainability of our partnership if needed.