ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell University's Kids Growing Food program is accepting 2004 garden grant applications from elementary and secondary schoolteachers in New York state. The grants will help teachers establish or maintain a food garden on school grounds. The application deadline is Dec. 8, 2003.

Kids Growing Food is the hands-on component of the New York Ag in the Classroom program. Its purpose is to teach students to understand how food grows by providing them with gardening experience at school.

Elementary or secondary schoolteachers in the state who have not received a previous Kids Growing Food grant are eligible to apply. Grants of up to $500, plus gardening and educational materials, will be awarded. Additionally, all garden-project teachers will receive professional development training at early spring workshops to be held at the Cornell campus and around the state.

Over the past six years, thousands of students at more than 250 New York schools have helped plant, tend and harvest Kids Growing Food gardens. These gardens have been in urban, suburban and rural schools settings, on school grounds, in window boxes, inside classrooms and even on school rooftops. Some teachers have turned asphalt-covered areas into food garden sites.

For more information or to obtain a 2004 Kids Growing Food garden grant application, visit the Web site http://cerp.cornell.edu/kgf/ call (607) 255-9252 or send e-mail to kidsgrowingfood@cornell.edu .

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