Directory of Gardens
McDade Elementary School Garden
| Location | Northeast of downtown Houston, inside the loop |
| Main Purpose | Education of the students at McDade |
| Established | 1975 |
| To Visit or to Volunteer | Contact McDade - call Urban Harvest for contact info |
McDade Elementary School in located in the northeast loop area. There are many basic needs that are not being provided within this area of town. There are no major grocery stores, hospitals or clinics in the area. There is also a problem with flooding, especially in those areas that are near the freeway.
Alice Moore has worked for more than 27 years at McDade Elementary. Presently, Alice is the Curriculum Coordinator for the McDade outdoor classroom. During her years at McDade Elementary, she has maintained a vegetable garden on campus. Alice, with the help of her husband, hauled the wood to build the seven beds that are about 40 by 4 ft. The school's grounds also include plantings of flowers in some areas and trees planted all over. Alice played a key role in planting all of these. She has also played a major role in the establishment of a Sparks Park at her school.
When Urban Harvest visited in mid-June, the McDade Elementary school garden was fully planted with vegetables. Alice told us that the vegetables all go back to her students. According to Target Hunger, a food and service agency in the area, one out of five people living in the Fifth Ward goes without food each week. Ms. Moore's school receives Title One assistance. Some of her students in the school receive a $50 voucher each year to help them. The students also receive vegetables from the garden to take home.
In addition, Alice has worked with Target Hunger to provide fresh vegetables for a United Way program that educates low-income adults about proper nutrition. The school garden provides fresh vegetables for this program.
Alice emphasizes the key role that the garden provides in teaching students. Many of the students do not know where their vegetables come from, and so growing them in the garden gives her an opportunity to show them where and how vegetables grow.
One of Alice's projects with the garden begins with Alice giving the students a seed packet and then sending them to the library to do research before they grow the vegetable from seed. They then take home their packet of seed to discuss it with their family. This exercise also seems to generate family stories about food and growing things, and gives the students an opportunity to both learn more about and their family history and record it.
Alice is not alone in using the McDade garden and maintaining it. Several other teachers routinely help her plant it, and they also use the garden as a teaching tool in their classrooms. Alice maintains her garden by routinely calling upon her husband for assistance. She also has Exxon Corporation send out volunteers to clean out the garden beds. During the summer months, she has students go out in the garden to pull weeds. The principal has also been supportive of her efforts to build and maintain the garden.
