2018 Champion Schools

Sponsored by

Abraham Lincoln Elementary  
Abraham Lincoln Elementary will use their Champion Schools grant to launch a community garden! Children and families will be encouraged to participate by joining the After-School Garden Club and contributing to their A Taste of Lincoln community cookbook.

Angels’ Place – North Side  
Angels’ Place – North Side will use their Champion Schools grant to implement a holistic wellness program; specifying science, nutrition, and gardening lessons. Parents will be encouraged to contribute through their Family Support Program and Play Connections group.

Angels’ Place – Swissvale  
Angels’ Place – Swissvale will also use their Champion Schools grant to implement a holistic wellness program; specifying science, nutrition, and gardening lessons. Parents will be encouraged to contribute through their Family Support Program and Play Connections group.

Avalon Elementary  
Avalon Elementary will use their Champion Schools grant to give students access to new recess equipment! Their physical activity program will promote active and healthy play, which will provide students with the opportunity to develop self-control, social, and communication skills.

Bellevue Elementary  
Belleview Elementary will use their Champion Schools grant to fund an in-school and after-school program designed to teach students about nutrition and healthy cooking. Their lessons will give students the opportunity to connect math, language arts, and science concepts to hands-on experiences – resulting in tools that promote longer, healthier lives!

Brightside Academy – McKees Rocks  
Brightside Academy – McKees Rocks will use their Champion Schools grant to fund a series of Family Cooking Workshops aimed at engaging children and families in the production and sustainability of nutritious practices!

Brightside Academy – McKeesport  
Brightside Academy – McKeesport will also use their Champion Schools grant to fund a series of Family Cooking Workshops aimed at engaging children and families in the production and sustainability of nutritious practices!

Brightside Academy – Pittsburgh  
Our third Brightside location, Brightside Academy – Pittsburgh, will also use their Champion Schools grant to plant a community garden. Children and families will learn to incorporate garden-grown produce into healthy, sustainable meals!

Center Elementary School  
Center Elementary School will use their Champion Schools grant to expand their student-run farming business. Funding will help in creating a vermicomposting bin and students will learn the importance of decomposers and how their actions, positively or negatively, affect our environment.

Chartiers Early Learning Center  
Chartiers Early Learning Center will use their Champion Schools grant to plant a community garden! Children and families will be encouraged to participate in student learning by contributing to a class healthy recipe book.

Community Day School  
Community Day School will use their Champion Schools grant to launch a Sukkot Fest and Shavout Fest to teach students about Jewish traditions, environmental ethics, and STEAM-based hands-on activities. Community Day School children will also participate in a nature walk on Tu B’Shevat with a naturalist educator from Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy!

Curtisville Primary Center  
Curtisville Primary Center will use their Champion Schools grant to fund Student Lap Tracker software, which will track the physical activity of faculty, staff, and students, and promote physical activity school-wide!

Donaldson Elementary  
Donaldson Elementary will use their Champion Schools grant to purchase fitness equipment, which will be utilized in students’ physical education classes. The new equipment will provide fun, new ways for the students to be physical active!

Dormont Elementary  
Dormont Elementary will use their Champion Schools grant to maintain their community outdoor classroom. This year, students will create totem poles adorned with positive messages, paint rain barrels for water collection, begin a composting program, and plant herb and vegetable seeds to yield produce that will be sold in their community market!

Dr. Cleveland Steward Jr. Elementary  
Dr. Cleveland Steward Jr. Elementary will use their Champion Schools grant to purchase desk cycles which will be used by third grade students as an independent activity. These new desks will promote physical activity in a fun, new way, and help keep the students engaged throughout the day!

Environmental Charter School – Pittsburgh  
Environmental Charter School – Pittsburgh will use their Champion Schools grant to launch a BikeECS program, which will educate children on bike safety and operation, roadside repair, civic engagement, and urban navigation. Students will participate in high intensity physical activity by biking through their school neighborhood as part of their regularly scheduled PE classes.

Edgewood Primary School  
Edgewood Primary School will use their Champion Schools grant to launch a school garden program, which will teach children to grow and harvest fruits and vegetables! The produce grown in the garden will be either consumed as healthy classroom snacks or sent home with students to be enjoyed with their families.

Evergreen Elementary School  
Evergreen Elementary School will use their Champion Schools grant to maintain a community garden. Produce grown in the garden will be made available to students at lunchtime via a ‘healthy snack table’ or donated to families and local food pantries!

Fred L. Aiken Elementary  
Fred L. Aiken Elementary will use their Champion Schools grant to improve their school gardening program, which provides opportunities for students and families to harvest, photograph, journal & learn about, and enjoy seasonal produce!

The Glen Montessori School  
The Glen Montessori School will use their Champion Schools grant to expand their garden and composting system, which enhances the beauty of their courtyard. This program teaches students about garden care, healthy eating, plant biology, local climatology, and zero-waste composting!

Greenock Elementary  
Greenock will use their Champion Schools grant to teach children that healthy snacks can be inexpensive, easy to prepare, and delicious! Children and families will learn nutrition basics, portion sizes, proper food handling, and essential cooking skills.

Mon Valley Special Education School  
Mon Valley Special Education School will use their Champion Schools grant to implement Yomatics and Mindful Movement Programs to teach self-regulation skills, increase student movement, and provide opportunities for sensory input.

Peabody Obama Early Childhood Center  
Peabody Obama Early Childhood Center will use their Champion Schools grant to implement a Big Day for Pre-K initiative to teach children self-regulation and self-control skills through yoga-type instruction.

Pittsburgh Arsenal K – 5  
Pittsburgh Arsenal K – 5 will use their Champion Schools grant to launch a Namaste and Play program—a yoga-type class that will teach students basic poses, gross motor, and listening skills!

Pittsburgh Faison K – 5  
Pittsburgh Faison K – 5 will use their Champion Schools grant to fund Playworks training for staff members in an effort to identify games and strategies for implementing play at recess. Playworks lessons include: “The Power of Play,” “Effective Game Facilitation,” and “Recess Design.”

Pittsburgh Mifflin Elementary  
Mifflin Elementary will use their Champion Schools grant to establish a multi-dimensional garden space! Faculty and staff will teach students how to build, cultivate, and sustain the space using 97% recycled materials.

Pittsburgh Montessori PreK – 5  
Pittsburgh Montessori PreK – 5 will use their Champion Schools grant to expand their Edible School Yard with edible shrubs, perennials, and trees in their pollinator-friendly garden! The gardens support GROW Pittsburgh and seek to increase children’s familiarity with fresh fruits and vegetables.

Pittsburgh Morrow PreK – 8  
Pittsburgh Morrow PreK – 8 will use their Champion Schools grant to teach second grade students how to plant, grow, harvest, and prepare edible plants!

Pittsburgh Phillips K – 5  
Pittsburgh Phillips K – 5 will partner with the Juice Plus Company to use their Champion Schools grant in developing tower gardens. The fresh fruits and vegetables grown in the gardens will be featured as culinary initiatives for students.

Pittsburgh Whittier Elementary  
Pittsburgh Whittier Elementary will use their Champion Schools grant to launch an after-school yoga program that will be open to faculty, staff, and students!

PLEA  
PLEA will use their Champion Schools grant to fund daytime physical activity instruction for students, which will be led by Wellness Teachers. The grant will also be used to buy fitness equipment, which can be used for both indoor and outdoor activities.

Providence Connections  
Providence Connections will use their Champion Schools grant to start a Summer Camp Garden to Table initiative! Students will learn to grow, harvest, and prepare seasonal fruits and vegetables by taking classes led by volunteers, faculty, and staff.

Riverview Children’s Center  
Riverview Children’s Center will use their Champion Schools grant to maintain their community garden. Children and families are encouraged to help in planning, caring for, and utilizing garden plants.

South Fayette Elementary  
South Fayette Elementary will use their Champion Schools grant to coordinate a Kids of Steel before-school running program. Over 18 weeks, student participants will have run approximately 26.2 miles—or the length of a marathon!

Spring Garden Early Childhood Center  
Spring Garden Early Childhood Center will use their Champion Schools grant to continue their Big Day for Pre-K initiative which teaches children self-regulation and self-control skills through yoga-type instruction.

Temple Ohav Shalom Center for Early Learning  
Temple Ohav Shalom Center for Early Learning will use their Champion Schools grant to purchase a set of 100 blocks from Imagination Playground. Students will use these blocks in the classroom and at recess to engage in imaginative play!

Thomas Child Care and Learning Academy  
Thomas Child Care and Learning Academy will use their Champion Schools grant to maintain a family-friendly program that features ATU-instructed exercise competitions, food truck meals, and giveaways.

Urban Pathways K – 5 College Charter School  
Urban Pathways K – 5 College Charter School will use their Champion Schools grant to maintain a classroom garden. Students will learn how to grow and harvest flowers and edible plants. Students will also learn the importance of community service by donating flowers to areas in need and nutrition basics by making healthy smoothies from their harvested produce!

West Mifflin Area Middle School  
West Mifflin Area Middle School will use their Champion Schools grant to purchase fitness equipment to be used in student’s physical education classes. The equipment purchased will help students to enhance their muscular strength, cardiorespiratory endurance, and flexibility!

Young Scholars of Western PA Charter School    
Young Scholars of Western PA Charter School will use their Champion Schools grant to maintain a multi-dimensional garden space. ‘Lettuce Turnip the Beet’ educators will teach students how to build, cultivate, and sustain the space using 97% recycled materials. Students will stimulate their senses in the new bee & butterfly garden, water garden, medicinal herb garden, miniature temperate forest, and orchid house!

2017 Champion Schools

Sponsored by

2017 Champion Schools Seed Mini-Grant Winners

Avalon Elementary   
Avalon Elementary will be implementing a Kids Can Cook program for their Life Skills students. Along with teaching the students cooking skills, the school will be purchasing a tower garden to expose the children to gardening and to provide vegetables for recipes and taste tests.

Bellevue Elementary   
Bellevue Elementary will use their Champion Schools mini-grant to buy a tower garden for their school. Students will receive hands-on lessons related to growing plants from seed, maintaining proper pH levels, harvesting, and making recipes with the harvested crops.

Brightside Academy   
Brightside Academy will use their Champion Schools mini-grant to implement their Family Meal = Happy Meals initiative. This initiative aims to engage parents and their children in five family cooking workshops that will be led by Brightside Academy staff and the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank.

East Union Intermediate Center   
After completing a School Health Index Assessment through Action for Healthy Kids, East Union Intermediate Center plans to use their Champion Schools mini-grant to increase opportunities for their students to be active. They will purchase more PE equipment which will complement their existing health initiatives such as a tower garden, smoothie tastings and Health Connect newsletter.

Glenn Montessori   
Gardens are growing at The Glenn Montessori School! They will be using their Champion Schools mini-grant to create a garden and composting system to enhance the beauty of their courtyard. At harvest time the students will create recipes for their families to sample and enjoy at their annual reconnection picnic.

Homewood-Brushton Child Development & Education Center   
The YWCA Homewood-Brushton Child Care Center will use their Champion Schools mini-grant to unveil their very own Discovery Garden. This addition will allow children to grow their own food, learn about the life cycle of a plant and get their hands dirty maintaining the garden. Once the garden matures, the child care teachers plan to create and share recipes with the children and their families using the food grown in the Discovery Garden.

La Escuelita Arcoiris   
La Escuelita Arcoiris, a first time Champion Schools mini-grant recipient, will be using their mini-grant money to create El Jardín de Colores. Their garden committee plans to build two to four raised beds to plant herbs and vegetables to ultimately host an Escuelita Salsa Party for their students and their families.

Manchester Academic Charter School   
Manchester Academic Charter School will use their mini-grant to transform a vacant lot owned by the school into a learning garden focused on growing fruits and vegetables. The elementary school students will be engaged at all stages of the garden from the planning stages through food preparation and tastings. By incorporating knowledge of nutrition information, students will learn the benefits of making healthy food choices!

Mt. Washington Children’s Center   
Mt. Washington Children’s Center plans to use their Champion Schools mini-grant to continue their Grow with Ro program. This program educates children about fruits and vegetables from seed to harvest through hands-on gardening and educational activities. Teachers will also provide opportunities for the children to taste the fruits of their labor during harvest season!

Pittsburgh Liberty K – 5   
Pittsburgh Liberty will be using their Champion Schools mini-grant to renovate their playground and create a garden for all the classes to utilize. The renovation of the playground and the garden will allow the students to spend more time outside being active.

PLEA   
Children who attend PLEA will be benefiting from the Get Kids Moving program, which will allow for more opportunities for the students to be physically active. The Champion Schools mini-grant will be used to buy fitness equipment and a variety of materials for indoor and outdoor activities.

Providence Connections   
Providence Connections will be implementing a cooking program that will benefit their students in their after school program. Students will attend a cooking class two to three times a week, work in the garden, create personal recipes and participate in a student cooking show. Staff will also create a monthly newsletter to share with students and their families.

Provident Charter School   
Provident Charter School will use their Champion Schools mini-grant to build a spherical grow room for their school! They will partner with a local vocational technical school to have carpentry students build the structure, and then the student population will help maintain the garden structure through the growing season. The school will then use the fruits and vegetables grown in the garden to supplement their lunch program, so the students can see and taste the fruits of their labor!

Regency Park Elementary   
Regency Park Elementary will use their Champion Schools mini-grant to build upon their existing edible classroom by purchasing a tower garden. Students and teachers of all grade levels will work to grow a variety of lettuce and other vegetables that will hopefully be able to support the school lunch program. Teachers hope that by including the students in the growing and harvesting of the food they will be encouraged to make healthy choices at school and at home.

Riverview Children’s Center   
Riverview Children’s Center will be using their mini-grant money to provide developmentally appropriate physical fitness equipment in their newly constructed indoor recreation room. Children will visit the recreation room daily and it will also be available for use during their after school program. Riverview Children’s Center hopes that this program will help children find new skills they enjoy and they will choose to seek out these activities in their free time rather than sedentary activities.

South Fayette Elementary   
South Fayette Elementary will be using their Champion Schools mini-grant to implement a yoga program for their students. School officials will arrange for a certified yoga instructor to teach students yoga postures, relaxation and meditation techniques. Classrooms will also be provided with yoga mats and yoga posture cards to continue yoga practice after the certified yoga instructor completes the staff and student trainings.

Sunrise School   
Sunrise School will be creating the Sunrise Garden which will allow their students to learn how to plant and grow vegetables in a tower garden. Each classroom will get the opportunity to grow vegetables in the tower garden and work first hand with the garden each day. If successful, the school hopes to expand the garden project to the school grounds with a greenhouse in the future.

Thomas Home Child Care   
Thomas Home Child Care plans to use their Champion Schools mini-grant to implement their Future Standouts program. The child care facility will partner with Chris Edmonds, founder of the Athletic Training Unit (ATU), to provide an organized exercise program for their children and their families on a weekly basis. These family friendly sessions will allow families to work out together and have fun at the same time. The ATU food truck will also be on site for families to purchase nutritious meals after their workout.

Woodland Hills Intermediate   
Gardens are blooming at Woodland Hills Intermediate School! The school plans to use their Champion Schools mini-grant to create a school community garden with the help of students, teachers and parent volunteers. The implementation of a school garden will create an avenue for students to understand the importance of cooperation and collaboration to achieve a positive outcome.

Wright Childcare Solutions   
Who’s growing? Wright Childcare Solutions is! They will be using their mini-grant money to implement their Let’s Get Growing program, which will allow students to take part in a variety of activities including planting, tending and harvesting their own gardens. Teachers will utilize resources from Grow Pittsburgh to teach students about the various aspects of creating and harvesting a garden!

2017 Champion Schools Award Mini-Grant Winners

Angels' Place – North Side    
Angels’ Place North Side will be using their Champion Schools mini-grant to continue their Learn, Stretch and Grow program! A child fitness expert will teach the children about different muscle groups, healthy eating habits and ways to incorporate exercise into their daily lives. Families will be encouraged to join their children during these activities and will be kept up to date about the weekly activities and given healthy recipes to make at home.

Angels' Place – Swissvale    
Angels’ Place Swissvale will use their Champion Schools mini-grant to implement the Learn, Stretch and Grow program. The Learn, Stretch and Grow program will focus on teaching science and nutrition through the outdoor garden, providing seasonal fruits and vegetables throughout the school year and providing expertly taught exercise classes designed specifically for the age groups of children they serve.

Beth Shalom Early Learning Center   
Beth Shalom Early Learning Center will use their Champion Schools mini-grant to continue their Namaste & Play program. This program provides developmentally appropriate yoga instruction to the children in the Early Learning Center. This program will expose the children to breathing techniques, improve their gross motor skills and act as an outlet for structured physical activity.

Community Day School   
Community Day School will use their Champion Schools mini-grant to continue their CDS Farm Stand After-School program for the third year. Activities take students on a journey from farm to table, starting with soil and composting, then to planting, harvesting and finally food preparation and distribution. This year, students will help install a pollinator garden on campus and taste tests will be provided in the lunchroom for all Community Day School students.

Curtisville Primary Center   
Curtisville Primary Center, a three time Champion Schools award winner, will be using their mini-grant to implement a Revamp Recess program. They will be creating three distinct recess zones to provide different options for structured play and provide age appropriate equipment for their students. The school hopes that by providing safe, functional spaces and age appropriate equipment students will have more meaningful activity time during recess.

Earthen Vessels Outreach     
Earthen Vessels Outreach will be using their Champion Schools mini-grant to implement their Stop, Move, Crunch and Go program. During this after school program students gather together for educational lessons and are allotted time to be physically active. The Champion Schools award mini-grant will go towards providing healthy snacks to the children multiple times a week.

Fred L. Aiken Elementary    
Fred L. Aiken Elementary is using their Champion Schools mini-grant to improve their recess program and incorporate other activities throughout the school year. Students will benefit from new equipment to use in recess and gym class, as well as the implementation of a mileage club and the expansion of existing gardening activities.

Kentucky Avenue School   
Kentucky Avenue School will be using their Champion Schools mini-grant to sustain their Enright Community Garden. This eight year garden project is an integral part of the school curriculum and culture at Kentucky Avenue School. During the spring and fall, students will garden on a weekly basis and engage in science, nutrition and service learning lessons.

Mon Valley School   
Mon Valley School plans to implement the Yomatics and Mindful Movement Matters programs to increase daily activity and limit sedentary activity in the classroom. The students will practice yoga to increase movement, breathing and mindfulness in hopes of improving their physical and mental health.

Pittsburgh Banksville K – 5    
Banksville Bobcats Fitness Champions are coming! Pittsburgh Banksville will be using their Champion Schools mini-grant to continue to build and develop their fitness program with new equipment and technology. They will continue their garden wall and will also host cooking classes for students to enjoy new foods and learn new skills.

Pittsburgh Conroy   
Pittsburgh Conroy will be using their mini-grant money to implement the Conroy On the Move! program. The money will be used to purchase more equipment for PE class to offer a greater variety of activities to the students. The teachers hope the additional equipment and new activities will allow the students to build on their team building skills and stay active during the entire PE class.

Pittsburgh Dilworth Traditional Academy   
Students at Pittsburgh Dilworth Traditional Academy will be learning how to plant, grow and care for an edible garden thanks to their Champion Schools mini-grant! This edible garden will be taken care of by students, teachers, parents and community members throughout the school year and the summer months. The school will also offer informational sessions and cooking classes to educate this families and community about the garden and what they can do with the produce!

Pittsburgh Faison K – 5   
Pittsburgh Faison will use their mini-grant money to continue their after school cycling program in partnership with the Wheelmill. During the spring and fall of 2017, Faison students will be introduced to the lifelong benefits of cycling at the unique facility located in the neighborhood. The Wheelmill partnership will also provide discounts to students who return with their families.

Pittsburgh Linden K – 5    
Pittsburgh Linden will be using their Champion Schools mini-grant to purchase equipment to improve their PE and health classes. The school plans to purchase equipment for activities such as: soccer, football, basketball, softball, kickball and jump rope. They will also be purchasing MyPlate resources for the nutrition component of their health class to ensure their students are receiving the most recent nutrition guideline information.

Pittsburgh Minadeo PreK – 5   
Pittsburgh Minadeo will be using their money to beautify their existing garden! The garden allows students to care for the plants from seed to sprout to harvest. During harvest time, students will learn how to cook healthy recipes with the fruits and vegetable they grow!

Southminster Child Care Center   
Children at the Southminster Child Care Center will be participating in the Fun Fitness for Kids program. The program aims to instill the importance of healthy lifestyles through fun, innovative weekly classes that improve children's physical, emotional and social skills. Southminster will host two separate weekly classes for its students: Stretch-n-Grow for children ages one and up and Yoga for children ages three and up. Throughout both classes, the teachers will discuss the importance of a healthy lifestyle that includes healthy foods and regular exercise.

St Edmund’s Academy   
Students in preschool and second grade at St Edmund’s Academy will collaborate to help care for their expanding school garden! Students will take responsibility for all aspects of the school garden such as tiling the land, planting the seeds and harvesting the crops. The school plans to expand their existing garden by adding additional outside planters and purchasing an indoor tower garden.

Sto-Rox Upper Elementary   
Sto-Rox Upper Elementary will be using their Champion Schools award to expand their school athletic program. Students can currently participate in football and baseball, but the school plans to add soccer, basketball and cheerleading to their program. By adding these additional activities to the school’s athletic program, students will be exposed to new sports they may have never tried before.

Urban Pathways K – 5 College Charter School   
Urban Pathways K – 5 will use their mini-grant funds to continue the Urban Pathways Proactive Day Starter (PDS) Smoothie Program. Participating students will arrive for school and immediately make a healthy fruit and vegetable smoothie. After consuming their healthy smoothie, the students will be fueled and ready to have a proactive day of learning. Students will also be exposed to the importance of eating fruits and vegetables during their PE time through various themed games.

Young Scholars of Western PA Charter School   
Young Scholars of Western PA Charter School will be using their first Champion Schools mini-grant to expand their school garden! This project, started in the spring of 2016, has taught the students about a variety of topics such as gardening, composting, pollination, sustainability and local produce. This school year the school hopes to add a pollinator garden, a water garden, a medicinal herb garden, a reading garden and a pumpkin patch! Let’s get growing!

2016 Champion Schools

Sponsored by

2016 Champion Schools Seed Mini-Grant Winners

Barrett Elementary  
Barrett Elementary is implementing the Barrett Bears on the Move program for their third through fifth grade students. The goal is to provide the students with organized physical activities during recess and an after school program to keep them active with fun activities throughout the day. Barrett Elementary will also have a reward system for activity participation and distribute materials to students for at-home exercises.  

Beth Shalom Early Learning Center  
Beth Shalom Early Learning Center's "Namaste & Play" program will focus on introducing basic body awareness concepts for their young students. With the help of a certified yoga instructor, children will learn basic poses, gross motor skills and listening skills through this daily program.  

Curtisville Primary Center  
Curtisville Primary Center is creating a kinesthetic learning lab for fun, hands on learning. They will transform a traditional classroom into an action-packed, hands-on lab which will be used by all teachers at least once per week. Not only will the lab be used to teach lessons in an innovative and engaging way, but it will also be utilized for indoor recess time, rewards or incentives, and monthly events. The goal is to increase student rates of weekly physical activity to help them meet the recommendation of 60 minutes of physical activity every day.

Donaldson Elementary School  
Donaldson Elementary School plans to increase activity by introducing Tchoukball to their students. Tchoukball will enhance hand-eye and gross motor coordination skills which will provide the students with the necessary skills to participate in a broad range of activities as they mature such as: basketball, baseball, softball, volleyball and football.  These acquired skills will generate student interest in adopting sports as lifetime hobbies.

East Union Intermediate Center  
Through the Tower Gardens program, third grade students will be directly involved in the upkeep of the garden while also observing and analyzing aspects of plant growth. By incorporating knowledge of nutrition information into mini-lessons, the students will learn how to make healthy food choices and the benefits of doing so.

Heritage Out of School Time  
Heritage Out of School Time will implement the Heritage Gets Healthy program. The goal of this program is to expand student access to and knowledge of healthy food and habits through hands on cooking experiences and garden activities. Teachers will be trained by Grow Pittsburgh and be provided with structured lesson plans and experiential learning activities to utilize in their classroom.

Hillcrest Christian Academy  
Students from Hillcrest Christian Academy will be participating in the Hillcrest Grows! program that aims to cultivate a "farm to table" mentality in students. Each grade level will be provided with a raised garden bed that they will tend to each week. Students will have the opportunity to eat the fruits (or veggies) of their labors during school lunch.

Hugs Away from Home  
Children at Hugs Away from Home will be participating in the Kids on the Move program. The goal of this program is to generate excitement about exercise among toddlers and young children. Hugs Away from Home aims for their children to be active for at least 30 minutes a day and will use their award to purchase more equipment for movement and exercise. Example equipment includes mats, gross motor equipment, music, and musical instruments.

Jefferson Elementary School    
Jefferson Elementary students will be participating in the JES is Growing! program. To cultivate curiosity and exploration, Jefferson Elementary will use the school garden as an outdoor classroom to promote healthy lifestyles with a focus on learning, nutrition, teamwork and giving back to the community. Hands-on, cross-disciplinary lessons will allow the children to explore planting and maintaining gardens, harvesting, preparing and sharing food; working cooperatively in groups; and learning about science and nutrition.  

Marshall Elementary School  
Marshall Elementary is using their award to enhance their existing health education curriculum with pertinent resources and equipment that allow for the seamless integration of health topics into physical education activities. Having materials that meet the needs of all learners and their learning styles will help children excel in their nutrition unit. 

Mount Lebanon Montessori School and Academy  
Students at Mount Lebanon Montessori School and Academy will participate in the Healthy Bodies, Helping Hands program. Through cooking classes, classroom instruction and other planned activities, the students will have the opportunity to learn not only about general nutrition, but also about food and kitchen safety and the importance of eating seasonal, local and organic foods whenever possible.  At the end of the 2016-2017 school year each student will have completed six hours of cooking class, four hours of classroom lessons related to the cooking class, one classroom project, two take-home projects and one field trip focused on nutritious foods. 

Mt. Washington Children’s Center  
Pre-K students at the Mt. Washington Children’s Center will learn about healthy food through the Grow with Ro program. Teachers plan to grow vegetables in their new garden and use these vegetables to practice healthful eating with the children. Along with gardening, the children will read books about food and cooking, create crafts and engage with parents by creating recipes that will be published in school cookbook.

Pittsburgh Minadeo Pre-K – 5  
Pittsburgh Minadeo Pre-K – 5 will be implementing a Fancy Water Program in their cafeteria. Fancy Water, consisting of ice water infused with fruit, will be displayed in and dispensed from water coolers in Minadeo’s cafeteria to provide a free, refreshing, zero-calorie beverage option during meal service. Currently, milk or juice are the only free beverage option available through the federal  School Breakfast Program and National School Lunch Program.  While milk consumption in children is encouraged, students should also be reminded and prompted to drink water throughout the day for health, development, and well-being. Fancy Water will get students excited to drink up!

Pittsburgh Montessori Pre-K – 5  
Pittsburgh Montessori aims to improve the health and well-being of their students through outdoor learning and physical activity in parks and in the community through their Pittsburgh Parks Rx at Pittsburgh Montessori program. Teachers will receive park-focused activities and materials developed by educators at the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy that will be integrated into existing curricula and augmented with Montessori lesson plans. Staff will also provide information regarding out of school time activities offered by partnering organizations to give students and families opportunities to discover more about Pittsburgh’s many parks, and what to do while there.

Propel Pitcairn  
Students at Propel Pitcairn will take part in the Pitcairn Grown program. Propel Pitcairn hopes to assist students in developing their understanding of how a seed becomes a plant and the environmental and biological factors involved by creating a garden. Students will plant a tomato and bean, and after the plants sprout and grow, the plants will be taken home with a corresponding recipe for the families to enjoy over the summer.

Righteous Beginnings Learning Center  
Righteous Beginnings Learning Center has created the Future Foodies program for their third to sixth grade students. These students will create a cooking group using produce from the Righteous Beginnings garden. Each week the group will meet to discuss the snack they will prepare, reflect on their experience, and work on their cookbook. The youth will then publish a cookbook that will be shared with their families and the community.

Sto-Rox Elementary School / Middle School  
Sto-Rox Elementary and Middle Schools will be creating the Sto-Rox Intermediate After-School Athletics program. The goal of this program is to provide athletic programming and opportunities for students that would otherwise not have the opportunity to participate in organized sports.  Through the use of athletics, in addition to teaching athletic skill, teachers will have an opportunity to teach character development, sportsmanship, and the importance of a healthy lifestyle.   

Washington Elementary School   
Washington Elementary School has created the Eating the Alphabet: Fruits and Veggies from A to Z! program. From October through March, Nurses and PTA volunteer parents will hold a lunchtime raffle once a month where tickets will be given to students who have at least one serving or fruits and vegetables on their lunch tray. The students will be entered in a drawing to win one of six fruit and vegetable cookbooks for them to use at home. Also, each week the students can participate in a recipe contest involving the current fruit or vegetable of the week.

2016 Champion Schools Award Mini-Grant Winners

Angel’s Place  
Children will learn the importance of healthy eating habits and where their food comes from through Angel’s Place Learning Garden Program. Through gardening, classroom instruction and receiving a healthy meal each day children will learn about healthy eating habits, life cycles, nutrition, the origins of their food and basic gardening skills. Plus, the time students spend gardening will count towards their daily minutes of physical activity.

Community Day School  
Through fun, hands-on gardening, cooking, and social entrepreneurship activities, students participating in the Community Day School Farm Stand after school program will cultivate lasting connections to their food and to nature rooted in the Jewish commitment to creating an ecologically sustainable and socially just world. 

Dr. Cleveland Steward Jr. Elementary School  
Students from kindergarten to fourth grade will learn the basics of yoga through the Yoga-Mindfulness in the School program. Students will be lead through yoga activities each morning, and families will be invited to participate each month. The school hopes that this program will offer students a new outlet to exercise, reduce stress, and provide them with the opportunity to bond with their families. 

Earthen Vessels Outreach    
Earthen Vessels Outreach is implementing a program called Stepping Ahead While Dropping the Junk to educate their children about the importance of healthy eating and exercise. After school, children will engage in physical exercise through song, video, dance, walking and music, and will also receive a healthy USDA snack or meal every day.

Environmental Charter School  
Students at the Environmental Charter School with be participating in the Morning Energize Club. This is a before school club where various equipment and indoor and outdoor activities will be used to initiate play during the early morning before school. After attending Morning Energize Club, students will be more awake and ready to learn in their classes during school.  

Greenock Elementary   
Greenock Elementary is creating the Eat Your Science program to take their existing programs to the next level. Students will explore science concepts using food through various small projects. Funding will be used to help build an outdoor food dehydrator, purchase cooking supplies and food needed for experiments, and extend the garden’s growing season by creating a hydroponics lab.

Linton Middle School / Penn Hills Elementary School  
Linton Middle School and Penn Hills Elementary School are collaborating to create Penn Hills Family Fun Zumba Night. Students and their families will engage in physical fitness activities to get active and other resources will be available to help teach the benefits of healing nutrition and supporting healthy relationships. The Zumba class will be instructed by a professional instructor, a healthy snack will be provided by the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, and take home resources will also be made available.

Mon Valley School  
Mon Valley School elementary students will plant and maintain a vegetable garden through the Mon Valley Grows! program. Students will plant and harvest produce to prepare one to two dishes for a tasting event conducted during the Mon Valley Open House in September. Also, students will learn about nutritional benefits of food through researching the health benefits of whole foods versus junk foods. They will then prepare an educational presentation on their research findings and present them during the Mon Valley September Open House.

Myrtle Avenue Elementary School  
Myrtle Avenue Elementary is enhancing their after school intramurals program for their fourth and fifth grade students. Through this program the school aims to keep their students active with new, fun sports in hopes that they will lead active lifestyles at school and also at home. Myrtle Avenue Elementary will add flag football, volleyball, wiffleball, baseball, and soccer leagues to their existing after school intramurals program.

Pittsburgh Banksville K – 5   
Pittsburgh Banksville K – 5 will be using their award to build upon their Healthy Kids Initiative. The goal of this on-going program is to make a positive healthy impact on students’ lives by educating them about the benefits of healthy living and by increasing their knowledge of exercise and its positive effects on the body. Pittsburgh Banksville strives to meet those goals by having a greenhouse and garden, providing healthy snacks and by further funding their Physical Education program.

Pittsburgh Linden K – 5  
Pittsburgh Linden K – 5 will create their very own Linden Garden! Pittsburgh Linden realizes that students learn not only by seeing and listening, but also by touching, smelling and tasting. Students will learn the basics of growing food and also have the chance to learn about different fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices. In addition, food harvested from the garden will be given to students in the Backpack Initiative program at the end of the week to supplement mostly non-perishable food they receive for the weekend.

Pittsburgh West Liberty K – 5    
Students at Pittsburgh West Liberty will be participating in the AIM program! AIM stands for: Add more fruits and vegetables, Increase activity, Make smart choices. Pittsburgh West Liberty will work with Grow Pittsburgh to create a brand-new edible school garden, as well as work with Citi-Parks to run an after school intramural program. The student leadership team will also create a “Wellness Wall” to display photos of members of the school community making healthy choices. 

Pre-K Counts Founders Hall   
Pre-K Counts Founders Hall is leading two programs: Yoga to be Kidding Me and Smoothies are Healthy. Through these programs, students will be exposed to yoga and have the opportunity to taste test smoothies made with various fruits and vegetables. Teachers will also provide weekly information packets about the benefits of the fruit or vegetable of the week and create weekly challenges for families that will help them assess their current eating and exercising habits and set goals for improvement. 

Rankin Promise Program  
The Rankin Promise Program is creating a Rankin Garden. Students will grow vegetables and herbs in an outside garden and also in an indoor aquaponics system.  The vegetables and herbs, along with healthy options bought from the store, will be used to prepare easy, healthy meals. Students will be encouraged to journal about their experience and their feelings about growing food and making better food choices.  

Shady Lane School    
Shady Lane School will use their award to build on their 2015 Champion Schools project by providing resources for their teachers to conduct additional healthy activities. In addition, Shady Lane School plans to implement a Sugar-Free Snack time by serving sugar-free options to the toddlers and providing these recipes and other information with parents to promote healthy eating and active play outside of school. 

Shady Side Academy Junior School  
Students at Shady Side Academy Junior School will be participating in the Active Learning program. The goal of this program is to keep students active in class, outside of recess and in gym class. Students will use equipment such as balance disks, balls, and disks during their normal class periods to allow the students to work while keeping their bodies active. This program is already being implemented in one classroom and the award will be used to buy more equipment so it can be used throughout the school, in various classes. 

Shaler Area High School  
Students at Shaler Area High School will participate in the Fun with Farm Food program. High School students will create and implement lessons on topics such as eating a variety of fruits and vegetables, making healthy eating fun and cooking together as a family. These lessons will be presented to Pre-K students who will also be involved in planting various vegetables in the High School greenhouse. This collaborative effort will allow both groups of students to learn about various aspects of a healthy lifestyle. 

South Fayette Elementary School  
South Fayette Elementary School is planting a new Discovery Garden. First and second grade students will learn to take care of the Discovery Garden during their regularly scheduled STEAM classes. Students and parents will have hands-on experiences with planting, weeding, watering and maintaining the garden.

Southminster Child Care Center  
Children at the Southminster Child Care Center will be participating in the Fun Fitness for Kids program. Their goal is to instill the importance of healthy lifestyles that include daily activity and healthy food choices through fun, innovative weekly classes that improve children's physical, emotional and social skills. Southminster will host two separate weekly classes for its students: Stretch-n-Grow for all children ages one and up and Yoga for all children ages three and up. Throughout both classes, the teachers will discuss the importance of a healthy lifestyle that includes healthy foods and regular exercise.

St. Bernard School  
St. Bernard School  will help their students learn through a Gardening and Nutrition program. With a planter garden already started, St. Bernard School hopes to expand its current garden to yield more produce to use at their school. Produce from the garden will be used for various food tasting throughout the year as well as a harvest parties for students. Students will learn through the hands on experience of gardening and will also be exposed to healthy foods through the food tastings and parties.

University Child Development Center  
Students at the University Child Development Center will participate in the Garden to Classroom Table and Beyond program. This project will take students through the gardening process from beginning to end, caring for the plants and celebrating by cooking and eating what they grow. The University Child Development Center will grow a variety of healthy fruits and vegetables in a variety of ways and hopes to instill the importance of healthy food choices and gardening in their students.

Urban Pathways K – 5 College Charter School  
Urban Pathways K – 5 has created the Urban Pathways Proactive Day Starter (PDS) Smoothie Program. Participating students will arrive for school and immediately make a healthy fruit and vegetable smoothie. After consuming their healthy smoothie, the students will be fueled and ready to have a proactive day of learning. Students will also be exposed to the importance of eating fruits and vegetables during their PE time through various themed games.

2015 Champion Schools

Sponsored by

2015 Champion Schools Seed Mini-Grant Winners

Barrett Elementary  
Barrett’s third and fourth grade classes will discover the short- and long term benefits of good nutrition and physical activity though hands-on class lessons called Sugar Shockers.

Children’s Community on Chadwick Street    
Children will participate in weekly competitions to make healthy snacks by using produce grown in the local community garden. Children will be challenged to use an array of healthy ingredients in their recipes, create a recipe book to use at home and will learn about kitchen safety. Children will also benefit from updated fitness equipment and curriculum to keep physically active. 

Cleveland Steward Elementary School  
Cleveland Steward is purchasing bouncy bands for each third grade student to attach to personal desks. The bands will assist the students by increasing their attention spans and allowing students to engage in movement while working on tasks at their seats. Teachers expect to see a decrease in agitated behaviors and increase in academic performance.

Curtisville Primary Center  
Curtisville Primary Center will purchase a tower garden, a unique vertical gardening system to grow fruits and vegetables as part of its Cultivating Wellness project to provide students the opportunity to learn about food groups, nutrients, and the role of food in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. In addition, the students will learn about the states and countries where fruits and vegetables are grown and processed for distribution. This garden will become a year-round initiative involving all of the students at some point during their weekly health and physical education classes. The vegetables will be harvested, and students will have the opportunity to taste them as part of their school lunch program.

Eden Hall Upper Elementary  
Eden Hall will begin cooking classes that focus on nutritious foods from around the world, and students will create easy recipes to prepare at home. Students will complete research projects about foods eaten at home and present healthy recipes to other students using those foods. Students will also be encouraged to join the middle school Culinary Adventure Club, a 2014 Champion Schools project.

Hiland Child Care Center  
The Hiland School Garden project will install raised garden beds on the center’s campus, allowing students to plant seeds, grow plants and taste their own fresh fruits and vegetables.

Mon Valley School  
Mon Valley Grows! Garden is a school project to educate elementary students on environmental sustainability, healthy eating, and gardening life skills. The garden will be constructed of ADA compliant raised beds and containers. Students will plant, maintain and harvest the garden produce, and will prepare it for consumption. Excess food will be donated to needy school families. Students will participate in the program once a week in March, April, May, July, September, and October, and classroom teachers and team leaders will conduct lessons and evaluations.

Penn Hills Elementary & Linton Middle School  
The goal of Penn Hills Family Fun Nights on the MOVE, a collaborative effort among the elementary and middle school staff, is to engage both students and their families in physical fitness activities while teaching the benefits of healthy nutrition and supporting healthy relationships. Families participating in Family Fun Nights on the MOVE will enjoy the fun social exercise class of Zumba for one hour. In addition to the class, families attending the Families Fun Night will receive take-home resources on the benefits of physical fitness and healthy nutrition presented by the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. Guest speakers on the topics of physical movement, healthy nutrition and healthy relationships will be featured. Participants will receive reusable water bottles and healthy snacks after each Zumba class and presentation.

Pittsburgh Montessori PreK-5    
The Montessori Health & Wellness Committee helps transform the school cafeteria to make fruits and vegetables a celebrated component of children's days. The cafeteria will feature permanent artwork, placemats and signage; host taste tests; and double as a place for indoor physical activity in winter.

Pittsburgh Faison K-5  
Pittsburgh Faison will begin an after school cycling program in partnership with Wheelmill on Friday afternoons during the spring of 2016. This partnership will introduce Faison students to the lifelong benefits of cycling with a unique facility located in the neighborhood. The Wheelmill partnership will provide discounts to students who return with their families. 

Pittsburgh Liberty K-5  
"El Jardín de Libertad" is an opportunity for Pittsburgh Liberty students to have an authentic agricultural experience while learning about cooking authentic foods of Spanish speaking countries. In the spring months, students will grow, tend to, and harvest plants such as tomatoes, peppers, jalepeños and more, and use those plants to cook cuisines of countries other than our own. Tending to the garden will be an "all hands on deck" approach, where all classes have an opportunity to plant, track growth, water, and ultimately harvest the food.

Pittsburgh West Liberty   
West Liberty will actively engage students and families in a newly created school garden. The garden initiative includes a Family Kick-off Event, where families will learn about the importance of the edible garden and work together to create templates for our garden design; Garden Construction Day, in March, where families will be invited to participate in garden construction; Take a Father to School Day, where students and Watch D.O.G.S. (Dads of Great Students) will take part in student facilitated garden lessons; and Spring Fundraising, where school PTO will lead a penny drive to raise money to sustain the garden.

Pittsburgh Woolslair PreK-5  
Pittsburgh Woolslair is installing a hanging Woolly School Garden. This garden will be used by teachers and afterschool staff to teach students how to grow and maintain vegetables, and will provide students with hands-on education about healthy foods.

Pre-K Counts Founders Hall   
This 20-week program will incorporate yoga poses and 30 minutes of kinesthetic learning activities into classroom instruction. Teachers will lead activities such as letter relay races, zoo phonics and counting repetitions of various exercises. These weekly kinesthetic learning games will be followed by a fruit or vegetable introduction and a taste testing of a class-made smoothie featuring the fruit or vegetable of the day.

Providence Family Support Center   
The Fit Friends project alternates between healthy cooking classes and activity sessions. Every two weeks youth will engage and learn about nutrition before cooking a healthy meal or snack that is easy for kids to make at home. During the active session on the alternating week, youth will engage in physical activity in the school gymnasium. This will include group dances led by a hip-hop dance instructor, Zumba classes, and Wii Dance programming. The purpose of this active session is to allow youth to engage in nontraditional physical activity and to connect to the arts through dance.

Saint Edmund's Academy  
Students will plant and harvest greens and squash in the school garden. Families will be heavily connected to the project as their children take home goods from the garden. Parents will take ownership of the garden over the summer by adopting the garden for a week at a time, insuring upkeep and enjoying the ripe harvest for the week.

Saint Sebastian School  
Saint Sebastian School has utilized the SPARK! program to improve physical education offerings to students and provide more opportunities in health education. Approximately 400 students K-8 are benefiting from an increase in moderate to vigorous physical activity during their school day. Saint Sebastian School is embracing a Fitness-for-Life model, exposing students to a variety of physical activities that can be maintained through adulthood. Students are learning more about growth and development, the body systems, nutrition, and the media’s impact on making lifelong healthy decisions. The curriculum is focused on research based practice as well as fulfilling both state and national standards for health and physical education.    

Shady Lane School    
Shady Lane School will transform its outdoor play area into a Neighborhood of Make-Believe, where students can run, play and learn about gardening with fruits and vegetables.

South Fayette Elementary School  
South Fayette Elementary School will host a Farm to Table Family Gathering after school in the spring. This gathering will feature a nutrition lesson about the foods that are grown in the elementary school's Discovery Garden. Families and students will learn about planting vegetables and will prepare a nutritious snack that incorporates the highlighted foods from the garden. The Farm to Table project will serve as a catalyst to further incorporate the Discovery Garden into the K-2 curriculum.

2015 Champion Schools Award Mini-Grant Winners

Aiken Elementary School  
Aiken Elementary School is implementing a Get Up and Get Active initiative that students can participate in before and during school. It also includes monthly family fitness challenges.

Environmental Charter School (ECS)  
ECS will improve its Edible Schoolyard program by building a ramada, an outdoor garden structure.

Falk Laboratory School  
Falk Laboratory School will introduce students to a kinesthetic classroom equipped with standing desks and balance-ball seating.

Grandview Upper Elementary School  
Grandview will purchase equipment to enhance the student fitness center. New exercise bikes that are "game bikes", allow the rider to pedal while playing interactive and virtual games. Students will have the opportunity to use the equipment during physical education (P.E.) class 1- 2 times per week, intramurals, and during other extracurricular opportunities during the school year. The P.E. class also benefits from Adagio Power Up lessons taught by nutrition educators once per month.

Greenock Elementary School  
Greenock Elementary School is building a demonstration kitchen for teachers and students to use for cooking lessons and as a place to prepare produce from the school’s edible garden.

Kentucky Avenue School  
The Enright Garden will be expanded for use as an outdoor classroom, giving Kentucky Avenue students a place to learn about and participate in food-growing processes.

Manchester Academic Charter School (MACS)  
Once a month MACS hosts an all-school, Family Night event for students and their families to come to together to interact with other families, students and their teachers. MACS re-created the Family Night menu to include healthier fare and provide fresh fruits and vegetables. The physical education teacher, school nurse, staff and other teachers will design a spring Family Night event focused on “wellness” to display healthy lifestyles information and activities through food, movement and overall wellbeing.

Memorial School  
The Memorial Movers Run Club will expand its afterschool boot camp stations with new equipment to accommodate more than 150 students.

Myrtle Ave. Elementary  
Myrtle Ave. Elementary is adding 4-5 more sports/activities to its intermural program, Golden Eagles, as well as extra recess time for the students. This will allow students to increase their fitness levels, as well as, find sports/activities that they will enjoy their entire life. Intermural programming at Myrtle Ave is very popular among the students, and the program staff expect to see increases in participation and sportsmanship in Golden Eagles activities.

Pittsburgh Banksville K-5   
Pittsburgh Banksville is continuing its initiative to incorporate physical activity and nutrition education into the classroom. Students taste new foods and learning cooking skills and plan, plant, and maintain the school greenhouse. 

Pittsburgh Dilworth Traditional Academy   
Students will participate in Bike/Walk to School Days, Chef in the Garden activities, and Family Fitness Nights.

Pittsburgh Langley K-8  
Pittsburgh Langley will expand its Healthy Eating and Culinary Club to reach younger students, teaching them how to use the vegetables and herbs grown in the school garden.

Pittsburgh Miller   
The Miller Garden Club maintains a school garden, affording students an outdoor educational experience for which they grow healthy food and learn about the importance of a healthy diet. A goal of the Garden Club is for students to experience the gratification of harvesting nutritious food that they have grown from seeds, and better understand plant science. Parents are invited to attend the closing of the garden in the fall, and the last garden club session at the end of the school year. At these events, produce is harvested from the garden and used to produce a nutritional food for consumption by all participants.

Pittsburgh Minadeo  
This project is focused on creating areas in the outdoor playground that encourage physical fitness and structured play. Students will have access to the game areas on the playground daily during a 20 minute recess period and parent volunteers will help paint and stencil playground areas. School staff is dedicated to teaching students how to play 4 square, hop-scotch, and other games in the new playground.

PLEA  
PLEA will provide a play center, new equipment, and more daily physical activity time for children ages 3 – 12.

Propel Hazelwood   
Twice a month, students participate in a healthy living program delivered by certified instructors of the Adagio program. Students learn about making healthy living choices, healthy food choices and tasting healthy foods. Mondays - Thursdays from 8:00 - 8:25 students participate in our POWER of Play structured recess program where educators facilitate a fair, healthy, safe and inclusive play community.  Mondays - Thursdays, students have access to a cooking cart that is equipped with a small refrigerator, blender, and outlets to support the use of other cooking equipment such as juicers, microwave, etc. 

Shaler Area High School  
Volunteer high school Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) students, plus high school students enrolled as "preschool helpers" will teach the preschoolers mini lessons about healthy eating. Four-five mini lessons with topics such as why to try new foods, why to eat veggies, what does organic mean, and why is it good to buy locally will be addressed through simple, hands-on, high school student-led lessons. Preschoolers will sample foods and then their families will be sent home with produce from the CSA share. Families will be asked to complete simple documentation as to what they made with the food.

South Allegheny Elementary School  
Students will enjoy new fitness equipment at recess and during the morning Healthy Start program, where students enjoy extra physical activity time every morning before class. Educators will reinforce healthy lifestyles in during class instruction and at home with monthly health and wellness worksheets sent home to families. 

Urban Academy of Greater Pittsburgh Charter School  
The Urban Academy is supporting its Edible Schoolyard project with weekly gardening and cooking classes, and food education in the classroom.

Urban Pathways K-5 College Charter School  
The school is expanding its healthy food program to deliver more fresh vegetables and fruits to all students.

Waldorf School of Pittsburgh  
The Waldorf School of Pittsburgh is transforming its outdoor space to provide students with a safe, beautiful and fully resourced play environment.

Woodland Hills Academy  
The STEAM Garden will be created mainly by the students with guidance and supervision from teachers. Students will use the garden harvest in healthy recipes and will track their experience in the garden with journals. Students will also install compost at the school for a school-wide composting initiative. Families will adopt the garden during the summer months.

2014 Champion Schools

Sponsored by

2014 Champion Schools Seed Mini-Grant Winners

Barrett Elementary   
Barrett’s fourth grade teacher integrated nutrition and physical health education into science class, using hands-on activities to teach students about the importance of learning from where their food comes, home economics, and physical activity.

Environmental Charter School (ECS)  
Third grade students participated in an Adventure Race Unit in P.E. class that required them to estimate and track steps to four different locations around ECS grounds.

Hyde Elementary   
The library at Hyde Elementary launched the Growing Healthy Readers series. Each week, students in kindergarten through fourth grade and their families read stories about food from around the world as local chefs prepare snacks (Getting Kids Moving and Teaching Kids to Grow and Cook Food).

Pittsburgh Concord    
Students and families at Pittsburgh Concord started a school garden club to enhance learning about healthy living. The students focus on growing ingredients for salads, and parents are invited to prepare and share healthy recipes.

Pittsburgh Banksville    
Pittsburgh Banksville hosted a Blast Off Family Night with exercise activities and a brown bag buffet of healthy foods that can be used to stock home pantries and fridges. The school also led a healthy cooking program called Food is Elementary for second and third graders, and launched Fitness Fridays, an initiative to incorporate physical activity into the classroom.

Pittsburgh Faison  
Pittsburgh Faison held a Walk and Bike to School Kick Off event in October, encouraging students to walk to school. The school also led Walk and Bike to School Wednesdays during the warmer months and several teachers wore pedometers to participate in the activities.

Rankin Promise   
Students at Rankin Promise participated in the planting and harvesting of fruits and vegetables, and learned to prepare healthy recipes. The school also incorporated yoga activities for kids before, during and after the school day.

Springdale Jr./Sr. High School  
Springdale installed a Florafelt System, a self-contained wall garden, to incorporate edible gardening, tasting and preparation activities into its upper elementary autistic support classroom.

Sterrett Classical Academy   
Sterrett used funds to create more opportunities for students and families to increase physical activity with walking and yoga clubs, and monthly fitness nights. The school also led a Bag the Junk Week campaign and created the Sterrett Healthy Cookbook.

Urban Pathways K-5 College Charter School  
UPCS K-5 started a healthy snack initiative to provide students with fresh fruits and vegetables, and promote healthy lifestyles.

Waldorf School of Pittsburgh  
The Waldorf School of Pittsburgh is creating a garden classroom as part of its edible schoolyard project. This space will enhance the school’s composting program, provide a new are for physical activity, and provide seed-to-table opportunities for students to learn about food.

2014 Champion Schools Award Mini-Grant Winners

Aiken Elementary  
Aiken Elementary introduced pedometers and new fitness equipment to support its school-wide fitness program, which includes monthly workout challenges, biking, dance celebrations, and walking and running clubs.

Falk Laboratory School  
Students at Falk Laboratory School use Polar Active software to explore health data related to their time spent in the classroom, the school’s yoga and mindfulness program, and the school garden.

Hartwood Elementary  
One hundred students at Hartwood Elementary participate in the Know Running Club, a program started by the Hartwood PTO. Each week, the students learn about running and track their progress over the course of the school year. They also join a team and register for the local 5K.

Kentucky Avenue School  
Kentucky Café and its community garden produce fruits and vegetables for homemade lunches that are prepared for students in kindergarten through eighth grade. Students, parents and community members manage the garden, and parents of Kentucky Avenue School students help cook and serve the lunches.

Manchester Academic Charter School (MACS)  
MACS hosts monthly Family Fun Nights where students gather for a healthy dinner with their families and participate in themed activities that improve skills in literacy, math, science or black history.

Miller African Centered Academy  
The Miller Garden Club maintains a school garden, affording students an outdoor educational experience for which they grow healthy food and learn about the importance of a healthy diet.

Pine Richland Middle School  
Pine Richland Middle School used funds to start a Culinary Adventures Club, teaching middle school students to make simple and healthy foods from scratch.

PLEA  
PLEA launched a creative movement campaign during the school day. Through their participation in a wellness group or multipurpose enrichment room, all PLEA students are engaging in 60 minutes of physical activity per day.

Winchester Thurston Lower School  
WT on the Move! encourages regular physical activity through a running and walking after-school club. Students track their mileage throughout the year and celebrate at school assemblies when they reach 26.2 miles and 100 miles, at which time they are inducted into the 100 Club.