Lower Columbia School Gardens

Our Story

Our Mission: Lower Columbia School Gardens (LCSG) empowers our community by connecting kids and families with real food and hands-on learning. Through dynamic garden and cooking programs, we cultivate health, equity, life-long learning, and stewardship of the world around us.         

After expanding and refining the one-acre garden at Northlake Elementary (est 2002), our team of educators, students, parents and volunteers set out in 2009 to help other local schools create thriving gardens. Now with a presence in 20 elementary and middle schools in Longview and Kelso, our team gardens and cooks with hundreds of kids every week.

What We Do:

~ Facilitate programs year round: garden lessons, cooking classes, middle school garden clubs, summer school, Community Garden Days, community events and more

~ Grow and distribute thousands of pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables to our community through Free Farm Stands

~ Steward twenty gardens totalling 150,000 sq ft in Cowlitz County, including hundreds of fruit trees, grape vines, berry bushes, annual veggie beds, native plants, and more

~ Give kids get the chance to connect with nature, grow their own food, experience hands-on learning, and give back to their community