Share what ya’ know,
share what ya’ grow.
We have three main programs in the Shark Garden, our summer gardening internship for at-risk high school students, our p-patch program, and our gardening and food education programming for the public. We also have an ongoing volunteer program to maintain the garden and grow food for the White Center Food Bank.
Summer Gardening Internship
The summer gardening internship started in the summer of 2015 when the nearly 30 of New Start High School’s students began construction on the garden as part of the Youth Works program. Students in our summer program earn a wage for working in the garden and math or science credit for their work in the classroom. We also provide a healthy and culturally appropriate lunch and several field trips. These students have improved their average attendance from around 31% to over 90% during the summer! The garden gives them healthy activities for the summer and gets them closer to graduation with a little spending money as a reward. The program is in partnership with King County and Highline School District. Each year, the program is subject to renewed funding and staffing, so we hope that it will continue to serve our kids.
P-patch Program
Our community p-patch program serves local families by giving them access to land to grow culturally appropriate food for their families. About 85% of our p-patch renters are families of color, including many immigrants, veterans, seniors, and members of our LGBTQ community. We have 76 plots for rent each season and you can read more about them here.
Public Education
We began offering free organic gardening and cooking classes in 2021 for the community. Each spring we do a survey to see what topics people are interested in and we use grant funds and donations to pay our guest instructors. Some of our speakers also donate their time. We believe in keeping these classes free, but we do accept donations. Classes typically run from February through November and you can see what’s next by visiting our events page here. Contact us at info@sharkgarden.org if you’d like to teach a class!
