Olivewood Gardens & Learning Center

Olivewood Gardens and Learning Center’s historic 6.85-acre property in National City, California serves as an interactive, indoor-outdoor classroom for children and adults from around San Diego County. Our purpose is to build healthy families and a healthy environment. We do this through science based environmental education lessons, hands-on gardening, and hands-on cooking for students and families from underserved communities. Started in February 2010, Olivewood Gardens, a 501(c) 3, is a garden and nutrition education center. Olivewood Gardens is a Type 1 supporting organization of the International Community Foundation. The house, gardens, and property were donated to the Foundation by the Walton family in 2006 and later gifted to Olivewood Gardens in 2010. Our staff serves our community with the help of dedicated volunteers. Olivewood’s purpose is to build healthy families and a healthy environment. We work with children, families and adults through hands on classes in the garden and the kitchen. Our children’s program offers visiting school children a curriculum of ecological, academic and culinary lessons to build scientific literacy and environmental awareness, while encouraging students and visitors to explore the interrelationships between a quality diet, sustainable agriculture and healthy living. Through garden-based education, our programs inspire children and families to explore connections between plants and the natural world, and the disciplines of history, science, art, literature, math, geography and nutrition. Our science based environmental education program adds hands-on, inquiry-based workshops in sustainable agriculture, water conservation, recycling and composting. Our parent program Cooking for Salud™ empowers parents to transform their kitchen into a healthy foods zone.