Two Arlington ISD elementary schools are growing more than just gardens this year.
Speer and Morton elementary schools each received a $5,000 grant from the Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation during Sprouting Healthy Communities Day. The grants will support programs that promote nutrition education, gardening, cooking, and healthy living among students.
Nationwide, the Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation awarded $2.75 million to more than 550 nonprofit partners.
At Speer Elementary, the grant will help expand the school’s outdoor learning area, creating even more opportunities for students to connect classroom learning with hands-on experiences.
“We are most excited about the opportunity to provide hands-on instructional support to supplement our core curriculum,” said Dr. Julie Ledford, GT Lead Teacher at Speer. “The outdoor learning center is a way to create memorable cross curricular connections which are vertically aligned to foundational learning in their classrooms.”
The new grant builds on work already underway at Speer. Grants from the Arlington ISD Education Foundation in 2025 and 2026 helped the school install six garden beds with drip-system irrigation. The Sprouts grant will allow the school to expand that outdoor learning space and add upgrades.
“The drought resistant native plants and automated sprinkler system are optimum for low maintenance plant diversity in our garden area,” Ledford said.
Plans also include a butterfly garden with plants such as milkweed to support migrating insects like monarchs, along with opportunities for students to learn about nutrition and healthy choices through demonstrations, education, and lifestyle information.
The school’s inner courtyard will also be designed as a hands-on learning environment, with a seating area where students can receive instruction, make observations, record data, and work cooperatively.
Ledford said the garden will be a place where students can develop healthy habits while also building academic skills. The project will also bring together parents, volunteers, and faculty, creating a communitywide effort around learning and healthy living.
At Morton Elementary, the grant will expand the school’s garden and nutrition programs, giving students opportunities to see firsthand how healthy food is grown and how healthy choices can become part of everyday life.
Morton principal Dr. Leigh Adams is excited about the hands-on experiences that the grant will offer students.
“By expanding our garden and nutrition programs, we are giving our students real-world opportunities to learn, grow, and build healthy habits – fulfilling our vision in Arlington ISD to engage every child with extraordinary learning” Adams said. “The knowledge and fresh produce our students cultivate won’t stay within our school walls – it will extend directly into their homes, strengthening health and connection across our entire community.”
For students at both schools, the grants are about more than planting seeds or learning about nutrition. They are creating opportunities to take what students learn at school and apply it in meaningful, hands-on ways.