The Cibolo Nature Center & Farm has a new name — same great mission.
Deep Roots is a multi-faceted program that combines outdoor learning, service, gardening and recreation to promote positive social-emotional learning outcomes for students with limited access to nature.
Please contact nature@cibolo.org or call (830) 249-4616.
The Deep Roots Program is a weekly gardening course at Herff Farm offered on a semester-by-semester basis to students with limited access to nature. Students design, build and plant beds for a market garden. They create products from the plants that they grow to sell at the Farmer’s Market at the Cibolo.
Currently our Deep Roots program serves students at the Oaks Academy Campus at Roy Mass Youth Alternatives (RMYA) in Boerne, TX. Children at RMYA have suffered severe trauma, abuse and neglect, and this weekly experience at Herff Farm serves to offer them new ways to learn while they develop a sense of hope, and many social-emotional skills. Through an ongoing partnership with Oaks Academy and RMYA, the Cibolo provides weekly classes in the gardens at Herff Farm to provide students with hands-on learning opportunities from seed to market. They design and sell products from the plants they grow and sell them at the Farmer’s Market at the Cibolo.
By teaching students how to grow their own food, we seek to teach them skills that will make them feel empowered to provide food for themselves while contributing to the greater community’s environmental good. They build lifelong skills that they will carry with them wherever they go and potentially even support them professionally in the future.
Deep Roots provides a concrete and measurable sense of accomplishment for students as they can physically see, taste, smell and touch the results of their work and even make a profit. All money students raise by selling at the Farmers Market goes back to their own school or organization.
We want to provide access to the Deep Roots program to students who have limited access to nature, and we would love to talk to you about your students, children or youth you serve. Please contact us at nature@cibolol.org or call (830) 249-4616.
If you are interested in a similar experience for your organization, group of students, garden club, check out our Homeschool Gardening Course. Give us a call and we’re happy to talk about how we might serve your needs.
If you’re interested in helping more students have these transformative experiences, consider donating to the Deep Roots program by contacting leigh@cibolo.org.