The Edible Classroom

The Edible Classroom cultivates academic achievement, healthy lifestyles, and environmental stewardship through garden-based, experiential learning. The seed for The Edible Classroom was planted 15 years ago when co-founders, Grace Julian and Beth Horst, saw an opportunity for their respective elementary schools to create something beautiful from empty, unused pavement on school property. So Beth and Grace began bringing their dreams to life with the help of administration, staff, parents, and outside organizations. Years of volunteerism at their children's schools solidified their love of using creative, hands-on education to engage children in the world around them.

After several years of discussing their respective efforts, they felt that a bigger opportunity existed to bring this experience to other schools. Armed with their own success stories, experience, and a passion to guide children in the joys of gardening, they formed The Edible Classroom in 2017.

The Penn Manor School District provided fertile ground for piloting the newly formed The Edible Classroom after-school garden clubs and summer garden camps. Within a few months time, The Edible Classroom was growing to include schools in the School District of Lancaster and Columbia Borough School District providing weekly garden education during the school day.

Now in our 7th year of service to the Lancaster community, The Edible Classroom serves 12 schools across 4 school districts, providing standards-based garden education during the school day and community-focused events during the summer. Within each school that we serve, our roots have spread across subject areas and student groups establishing connections from the school garden to the school community.

The Edible Classroom is a non-profit organization that partners with schools to create and sustain learning gardens where children, families and communities engage with nutritious food from seed to table. We offer garden lessons to schools during the school day, run summer Garden Camps, and host community building events.