Episcopal School in Los Angeles teaches community service and stewardship of creation through organic gardening:
LOS ANGELES: How does our garden grow? With a blessing from the presiding bishop
Episcopal school spreads hope through community service project
Each weekday 10-year-old Elena Forbath eagerly looks up to Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori — or at least an image of her — while checking the organic garden at the Gooden School in Sierra Madre, California, in the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles.
“I like to see what’s growing big. The squash and tomatoes and Swiss chard are growing like crazy. We already pulled the beets,” said Elena during a May 4 telephone interview.
The organic garden project, dubbed the Garden of Hope, afforded Elena and other fifth graders at the K-8 Episcopal-affiliated school lessons in science and the environment, community service and the Millennium Development Goals, and a little bit about the Episcopal Church thrown in for good measure.
That’s because the presiding bishop gave them permission to use her image for the garden scarecrow.
“I know she’s the head bishop of the Episcopal Church. She’s the head bishop over all the other bishops,” Elena said. “It’s really nice to see her every day.”