Pasadena Community Gardens Conservancy-Funded Garden to Hold Grand Opening at Madison Elementary School

Pasadena Community Gardens Conservancy, in cooperation with the Pasadena Educational Foundation and the Pasadena Unified School District, will be opening a new community garden at Madison Elementary School, at 515 Ashtabula Street, this Saturday, January 30, 2016.

Pasadena City Mayor Terry Tornek is scheduled to attend the Grand Opening ceremony, along with PUSD Superintendent Brian McDonald and board members of the PCGC and the Pasadena Educational Foundation.

The event will be held at the Madison Elementary School Garden and Orchard from 2 to 3:30 p.m.

PCGC sponsored the construction of the garden and orchard, which will now be incorporated into the State of California’s new pre-science curriculum for elementary students. The new garden will be used for pre-science study by all grades, kindergarten through 5th Grade. Teachers will be using a state-certified curriculum that incorporates gardening into pre-science classes.

Madison Elementary School has a student population of 650, about 90 percent of whom are Latino, and is located in an underserved neighborhood of northwest Pasadena. The school is regarded as one of the lowest-performing schools academically within the PUSD. For more information about Madison Elementary School, please visit http://madison.pusd.us/pages/PasadenaUSD_MadisonES.

PCGC is an all-volunteer nonprofit dedicated to improving family health in northwest Pasadena’s urban “food desert” neighborhoods through grants for community gardens and nutrition education, volunteerism, and educational outreach.

The group has a Public-Private Partnership with the City of Pasadena and Los Angeles County, and is a proud founder and funder of the Villa-Parke Community Garden, northwest Pasadena’s first public community garden, to which it has pledged support of $100,000.

To learn more about the PCGC, visit www.pasadenaconservancy.org.