This Friday, April 24, The Education Fund and
@lifetime.foundation will celebrate Arbor Day in a
@MiamiSchools Food Forest. Life Time Foundation volunteers will join students at Lake Stevens Elementary School to plant trees, harvest fresh produce, and experience firsthand how a schoolyard can become a living classroom.
Students will spend the morning the way they spend every week in their Food Forest: measuring, calculating, tasting, and connecting math and science to the world growing around them. They will be joined by Life Time Foundation team members and volunteers to plant species carefully selected to thrive in South Florida's climate and to keep feeding both the forest and the families who depend on it.
The Education Fund Food Forests for Schools is a first-in-the-nation, large-scale initiative that transforms schoolyards into eco-labs for student learning, with more than 30 varieties of tropical fruit trees, herbs, and vegetables native to South Florida (including banana, papaya, Barbados cherry, moringa, starfruit, and Okinawan spinach) selected to maximize both nutritional benefits and classroom opportunity.
A $75,000 presenting funder grant from Life Time Foundation supports The Education Fund Food Forests for Schools across Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS), the third-largest school district in the United States. The program reaches more than 26,000 public school students across 71 Miami-Dade County Public Schools. The Life Time Foundation has given $200,000 to support Food Forests for Schools since 2024.
In a county where the mean tree canopy cover is just 20 percent, the Food Forests stand apart: average canopy cover across the Food Forests reaches approximately 53 percent, according to a Florida International University study led by researcher Cara Rockwell, PhD.
(Photos of Earth Day 2025 with
@lifetime.foundation )
#EducationFundMiami #LifeTimeFoundation #ArborDay #EarthDay