Merced elementary school to revive garden with $10K grant, help from volunteers

Members of the community will be rolling up their sleeves on Saturday to build a community garden at Rudolph Rivera Elementary School.

The build will include creating 4-foot-by-4-foot raised sections of garden for each preschool through third-grade classroom, Rivera Principal Rick Her said, with fourth graders serving as kind of keepers of the garden. Volunteers will build the sections, install weed barriers, lay down soil and rocks and install irrigation throughout the garden. Her said several community members and businesses are supporting the project.

Her said the garden build will serve to improve a school garden that was at one time maintained by a UC Merced student, but the garden has since become overgrown.

“We’re rejuvenating a garden that has been left to tend to itself for quite some time,” said Her.

Her said each of the classrooms will be in charge of planting whatever they want in their section of garden and it is up to the teacher and students of that classroom to maintain their section, potentially sparking some competition between classrooms.

“That little competition between classes, that pride and also at the same time allowing kids to experience what it feels like to grow something from nothing, to something that you can eat. From the garden to the table,” said Her.

Her said the students will be allowed to take home crops grown in the garden.

The school received a $10,000 grant from Sprouts Farmers Market. Project materials were purchased from a local Lowe’s at wholesale prices.

Merced Sprouts Store Manager Tim Robinson, 44, suggested Her apply for the grant last fall.

“We went ahead and got Rick to apply and put in the information for Rivera,” Robinson said. “They ended up getting one of the highest grants to build and use for this garden.”

“It’s the greatest joy,” Robinson said. “It’s just really rewarding to see these kids have something to look forward to and hopefully set some goals for them for the future.”

“This partnership, this grant means everything to us,” said Her. “It gives us the freedom to really just not be so focused on the politics of how we’re going to use this money, but just, ‘hey you got this money, use it for the kids,’” Her. “Make it so it’s a positive experience for the kids. So it means the world to us.”

This story was originally published April 18, 2025 at 11:20 AM.