NEW SCHOOL

APPLICATION

Dates to Note

Award Application Timeline

Feb 9 – Mar 20 Award Application Window

April 4 – 10 Interview Sign Ups

April 13 – 30 Interviews (in-person for new schools)

May 7 Final Decisions Delivered

May 18 Signed MOU’s Due

Educator Training

Exact dates to be announced (tentatively early August)

To prepare you for the application below, here are a few helpful links!

Click here to preview questions & prepare

Click here to download the Sample MOU

Click here to download the budget template

NOTE:

The school principal must be the one to submit this application.

New School Award Application 2026-27

"*" indicates required fields

Phone

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

The Pillars of a Strong Application:

A thriving garden & cooking program will meet or exceed the MOU expectations.
There are strong relationships and support from classroom teachers, admin, parents, PTA/PTO, etc.
Efforts are in place to provide financial sustainability for the program.
There is infrastructure that supports successful classes, classroom spaces, irrigated & growing, gardens, etc.

New Schools for 2026/27

Is the school in San Diego County?*

Yes

We are only accepting new schools in San Diego County this year.

Contact Information

Principal Name*

First Last

Principal Phone*

Principal Email*

Elementary School Information

School Name*

District Name*

School Address*

Street Address Address Line 2 City State ZIP Code

School Type*

Public

Private

Charter

Number of Total Students*

TK-5th Grade

Number of Classrooms*

TK-5th Grade

How many students qualify for free or reduced price meals?*

How many students are English Language Learners?*

Please provide percentages by number(%), adding up to 100% total, of the below ethnicities of your students.

African American*

American Indian/Alaska Native*

Asian*

Filipino*

Hispanic/Latino*

Pacific Islander*

White*

Two or More Races*

Not Reported*

What type of Parent Organization does your school have?*

PTA

PTO

Foundation

Other

What is the Parent Organization's Employer Identification Number (EIN) or Tax Identification Number (TIN)?*

If your school does not have a Parent Organization/foundation, please provide your school’s EIN instead.

Principal Questions

Have you previously applied for a SGP award?*

As the principal, how would you support the program successfully meeting MOU expectations and ensuring that every student gets to participate equally and fully?*

Sage Garden Project funds are available for schools with existing elementary school gardens in place. Funds may not be used to create new school gardens.

Describe your current garden. Does it need additional work to prepare it to be used as a safe teaching space?*

Shade, seating for full classrooms, white board or board for displaying curriculum elements, etc.

Are there any projected changes slated for the garden space during the 2026/27 school year?*

Site modernization or other construction, garden space relocation, changes in irrigation or water access, etc.

Because a garden is a living classroom, functioning drip irrigation is a cornerstone to a successful garden classroom and a requirement for our funded schools.

Does your garden have functioning and effective drip irrigation?*

If not, what is the plan to have it working by the start of programming?

Sage Garden Project is looking to work with schools that need support with starting garden & cooking programs but fully intend to continue these programs long-term in their communities without our financial support.

What is the financial sustainability plan to fund a garden & cooking educator and to continue programming after SGP support?*

Sage Garden Project is looking for schools who can garner strong support from their district, principals/admin, classroom teachers, families and greater community, and PTA/parent org groups.

Do you currently experience or anticipate any resistance with any of these groups?*

How do you envision these groups supporting and helping you provide a successful program?*

Click here for an example MOU for this award. Please read and answer the following questions:

Are there any parts of the MOU that you have questions about?*

Are there any parts of the MOU that you see being a challenge for your school to meet?*

Do you feel confident that you can fulfill the MOU?*

Tell us about the community that your school serves and what makes your school special.*

Examples: you serve a higher student population with disabilities, youth in foster care, have a language academy, special programs, have special community support, etc.

Financials and Sustainability

Sage Garden Project’s goal is to provide funding to schools that are ready to start establishing their garden/cooking programming.

The award is meant to be a starting point, with schools ultimately building a program that will garner support from public and private partners to create long term sustainability.

This is because our goal is to support the blooming and growth of many new programs, and graduating current funded schools who have become self-sustaining allows us to provide equity and opportunity to more communities. Awardees should understand the Sage Garden Project funding is short term and not guaranteed from one year to the next.

With that in mind, we want to begin our funding relationship by having conversations about opportunities you can find to make the program sustainable after the SGP funding has concluded.

Has your school/district ever offered and/or funded a cooking & garden program before?*

If yes, please tell us a little bit about what you understand has been offered.

What does sustainability for this project mean to you?*

Why do you feel it's important to build a long-term, sustainable garden and cooking program that has consistent and dedicated funding/resources?*

Will your garden & cooking educator(s) be contracted and paid through the district or parent organization?*

If other, please explain.

District

Parent Org

Other

Please describe the contracting process or plan.*

What will your payment process be for your instructor(s)?*

Will you pay your educators weekly, monthly, in an up-front lump sum, etc.

Would your school/PTA/parent org be able to add additional funding for the educator salary?*

Award Implementation

The Sage Garden Project Wild Wisdom Curriculum is a hands-on series of enrichment lessons designed to be taught during the school day that incorporate caring for a garden and learning cooking skills.

Lesson Requirement Info:

The scope of schools we serve ranges greatly in classroom size. In an effort to make our lesson requirements equitable, we have created three categories (Small, Medium, Large) of schools based on the number of TK-5 classrooms they have.

The MINIMUM amount of lessons to be taught during the school year is as follows:

Small School: 14 or less TK-5 Classrooms - 8 Wild Wisdom garden and 8 Wild Wisdom cooking lessons

Medium School: 15-18 TK-5 Classrooms - 6 Wild Wisdom garden and 6 Wild Wisdom cooking lessons

Large School: 19 or more TK-5 Classrooms - 4 Wild Wisdom garden and 4 Wild Wisdom cooking lessons

This will ensure that regardless of school size, students will receive a robust, year-long program.

Based on the above parameters:

How often would each classroom receive a garden/cooking lesson?*

For example, how often does Mr. Smith's 2nd grade class come to the kitchen or garden for lessons? (Mondays & Thursdays, once per week, every other week, etc.)

How would you create a schedule that meets at LEAST the minimum amount of lessons for all classrooms?*

How much classroom time would be allotted for a singular garden/cooking lesson?*

For example, a typical garden/cooking lesson for your school may be 45 mins (+ transition time).

Would the classroom teacher attend/participate in lessons?*

The Sage Garden Project award for new schools includes a fully loaded mobile cooking cart.

Where will your cooking classes take place?*

Where will your kitchen cart be stored?*

How will garden maintenance be accomplished during the summer?*

Who will come/be responsible? What will be done during the summer? Examples may be irrigation checks, maintenance or clearing of beds, prepping or amending soil, harvesting current crops, etc.

Support

Describe your schools' garden & cooking committee, including other stakeholders, and their vision and goals.*

Evaluation & Assessment

The Sage Garden Project requires each award recipient to complete a year-end program evaluation and student assessment. Each school is responsible for conducting this assessment using the SGP assessment tools.

By checking this box, I acknowledge that my school will participate in the annual evaluation of the program.*

Yes

Future Programming

Are you confident you can have you program running no later than August 31, 2026 and that it will run for the duration of the school year?*

Describe your plan.

Do you have a candidate for the garden/cooking educator(s)?*

Please describe their experience.

If you receive the award, do you feel confident that you can have someone contracted and able to attend the Teacher Training? Describe your plan.*

Our 3-Day Teacher Training is a requirement of the MOU and is tentatively scheduled for early August 2026.

Sage Garden Project edcuator(s) are required to attend the annual 3-Day Teacher Training.*

They should be paid out of the award amount. By checking this box, you acknowledge you will pay them for their participation.

Yes, I will pay them to attend Teacher Training out of the Award amount.