Colectiva Bilingüe Climate Action Project
From the Summer 2025 issue of Northern Gardener
Between 2023 and 2024, Colectiva Bilingüe (Minneapolis Bilingual Education Collective) initiated their Bilingual Climate Action Project to teach children how community gardening and pollution reduction go hand-in-hand. We were excited to cover their progress in Northern Gardener, along with how they utilized our Garden-in-a-Box program to educate and encourage participation from their five (5) Spanish Dual Language Minneapolis Public Schools.
Here are some fun stats!
About 400 kids
involved in the project
15 adults + 10 parents
helped the kids grow
90% Latino/Latina
+ 10% white participation
50 nutritious meals accessed
throughout the season because of the food grown in each Garden-in-a-Box kit
40 pounds of food harvested
and stayed in the community, going to participants, their families and program staff
Feedback from the program:
“At Emerson, a grandma (Gloria) who assisted with the garden during summer school would make Caprese salad with the cherry tomatoes and basil from the garden and her own mozzarella from home. She also sent the harvest home with the students who helped during recess. At Las Estrellas, the mom leader sent photos of each harvest to the family WhatsApp group and incorporated all produce into meals for her family and friends. We also served cherry tomatoes and basil all summer when we tabled at community events! We used them to attract visitors to our table in place of the traditional candy bowl that other organizations use.”
“Our biggest success was finding something that the Latina moms and grandma on our multi-school environmental leadership team could lead using their own skills, experience and resourcefulness, from beginning to end. We did not plan a garden project, but it was the initiative of the leaders that led us to seek out a partnership with GIAB. Since starting the garden projects at Emerson and Las Estrellas, all 3 of the key project leaders have become Colectiva board members, contributing to our 2024 goal of diversifying our board to be over 50% Latine and Spanish-speaking. We also made progress, specifically over the summer months, in our goal to maintain a closer collaboration with our educators, who would bring their classes to the Emerson garden for educational and recreational activities for summer school.”
Watch the video below to learn more about the project and see student gardening in action:
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