Great Explorations Children's Museum

Great Explorations Children's Museum will implement an outreach program in the Midtown neighborhood of South St. Petersburg, Florida, to teach middle-school-aged youth how to plant a garden. Midtown is an urban food desert with no grocery store in a three-mile radius that has fresh produce available. The museum will incorporate STEAM methods of learning, teach SMART (Specific, Measurable, Agreed-Upon, Realistic, Timely) goal setting, and provide high-school-aged mentors to guide younger students throughout the program. Graduates of the program will receive a starter garden kit to take home and grow with their family and track its progress. The garden area will remain open at the end of the project as a community garden for the Midtown Neighborhood. The project will help with recovery from the pandemic by addressing the area's food insecurity by teaching students how to sustain their own food source.