CUSF and Fowler Farm Project

The Champaign Urbana Schools Foundation was highlighted along with a recent farm project with local schools. A small overview of the CUSF from its history page:

In 1988, local citizens came together to establish the Champaign Urbana Schools Foundation. Concerned about cuts to state and local education budgets, they wanted to provide a way for individuals and businesses to invest in our local public schools.

These citizens believed that private funds would provide critical assistance when budgets were tight and public funds must be spent conservatively. Those extra dollars would allow teachers to think imaginatively and try new ideas at a time when school administrations could not afford to take many risks. Moreover, the opportunity for teachers and administrators to witness and evaluate small-scale demonstrations or pilot programs leads to greater effectiveness in the use of public funds.

And from the News-Gazette Friday:

Open house to show community how farm sparks students' outdoor interests
...
Funded by a grant from the Champaign Urbana Schools Foundation, the outdoor work project's origins lie with Edison Middle School science teacher Julie Anders. She had hoped to create a "living lab" on farmland near the school, but said funding from CUSF allowed the project to expand beyond her initial plans.

"CUSF stepped in in a big way and gave us our grant that allowed us to do these all-day field trips," Anders said. "We took 20 kids from Urbana High School and 20 kids from Edison, and then we fashioned an all-day program that had them doing stations and planting plants and gathering water. We had a pretty ambitious program, trying to encompass everything, and we've had to just do what we could with the kids that we had on the days that we had."

...

Initially, sustainable gardening was the focus of the Fowler Farm project. But as years passed, the project expanded to include chickens; a pond dug by students (now filled with fish and topped with water lilies); even a "Chopped" challenge, later in the school year...

For [high school senior Mona Jawd], that experience helped her decide what to pursue past high school. She's able, now, to speak at-length about food deserts and research showing the amount of wasted space where food could be grown. She even pitched it as her own project.

"Edible landscaping — the method of using plants to create a beautiful space — as soon as I mentioned it, Fowler Farm gave me an outlet, and that's not something students normally get," she said. "When I read about it in a book, I thought it would be really cool to bring it to Champaign to show students here. The first thing they did was find me a mentor in landscaping." 

Full article here.