The women – volunteers and community groups – grow herbs like thyme, sage, oregano and basil, along with lettuce, tomatoes, peas, eggplant and pepper and a variety of flowers. The garden is supported by the Bronx Botanical Garden, Greenthumb NYC and For A Better Bronx (FABB).

According to a 2008 article on Scienceline, the South Bronx has the highest rates of asthma and diabetes in the city. The streets of the community are lined with fast-food joints, and residents often have no information about healthy eating and few options for purchasing fresh produce.

But groups like “Learn It, Grow It, Eat It” (LGE) are trying to change that. A collaboration of the Council on the Environment of New York City’s Environmental Education, Open Space Greening and Greenmarket programs, LGE is housed in four high schools and three community gardens in the Morrisania section of the South Bronx. The group is incorporating high school health education with its support of community gardens (there are more than 600 such gardens in the city). The organization also offers high school credit for garden maintenance.

ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability USA has a free webinar for anyone in local government  on How to Make Your School Buses Cleaner this Friday, June 5 at 1-2 p.m. Eastern

You can learn how to make your school buses cleaner, more efficient, and reduce harmful pollution associated with diesel exhaust. Get the tools and resources needed to start a program in your school district to:

• Complete technology retrofits on school buses to burn diesel more efficiently;
• Switch from petroleum diesel to a biodiesel blend; and
• Reduce vehicle idling around school buildings.

The webinar will introduce three toolkits (click to get them immediately) designed to help your school district.  Each toolkit contains a step-by-step guide, fact sheets, outreach materials, case studies, and more.

A few days before the event, participants will be sent an email with instructions on how to participate in the webinar.  You will need a computer with internet access and a phone.

As Director of Career and Technical training for Virginia Beach I am trying to help train a green workforce. Can anyone point me to curriculum in this arena as these seem to be 21st century skills for all students and adults i.e. sustainability etc.

Please put your suggestions as a comment so everyone can see them.

SightlineDaily reports on a potentially good idea: Washington state Representative Hans Dunshee proposes that the state issue bonds for $3 billion, which would employ some 90,000 people to make “safety, health, and energy efficient improvements to public facilities in all public K-12 school districts, community and technical colleges, state universities, regional universities, [and] The Evergreen State College.”

The bonds would be paid back from energy savings. Besides the health and learning benefits of green schools to the occupants, the lower carbon footprint, permanent savings on energy costs, the tens of thousands of jobs and increased business in the state, the sales and business taxes earned back by the state both directly and indirectly, the economic stimulus to any number of local businesses in every community statewide, the green skills gained by workers and contractors statewide, and the great example, would it work? Ah, the pesky bureaucratic details.