What We Do and Why

The NTx School Garden Network plays a crucial role in advancing the school garden movement by providing essential support to school garden educators. By offering resources, training programs, and collaborative platforms, the organization empowers educators to enhance their skills, share best practices, and create thriving school gardens. Through strategic partnerships, funding opportunities, and educational initiatives, the organization fosters a supportive ecosystem that enables educators to cultivate not only gardens but also a sense of community, environmental stewardship, and hands-on learning experiences for students. This collaborative effort ensures the sustainable growth and impact of the school garden movement, enriching education and promoting a deeper connection between students and the natural world.

Our Board

Kim Aman Chair

Kim Aman would love to see a school garden in every schoolyard in NTx. She helps connect students with the soil, their food, and their community. Her farming roots run deep from her Grandfather who grew crops in the rich country soil of central Ohio. He taught her about the earth, soil, plants, animals, and the beauty of a bite from a vine-ripe tomato. She knows that she is fortunate to be doing what she loves and looks forward to every day that she can spend digging in the soil.

Mary Jo Greene Vice President

Mary Jo Greene is Executive Director of Made Greene LLC, a School Garden Education Service business based in Fort Worth, Texas. She partners with organizations such as The Blue Zones Project, Texas Health, Kaboom!, Fort Worth ISD, and Arlington ISD to create, maintain and implement School Garden Programs in 22 schools, serving around 500 children a week. Mary Jo also heads up the School Garden Committee at the Tarrant County Food Policy Council, working to support growing initiatives in communities throughout Tarrant County. Mary Jo holds certificates from The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), has certification from The Texas Organic Research Center and is a Tarrant County Master Composter.
A teacher by trade, Mary Jo moved to the US from the UK around 8 years ago. She draws on her years of school and community gardening experience in the UK when working with her local Fort Worth schools. As a beneficiary of a school system that implemented gardens throughout her elementary school education, she knows first-hand the magical effect outdoor learning can have on a child’s educational experience. Mary Jo is a passionate advocate for school gardens. She believes that every single school campus should have a garden and will work as hard as she can to make this happen!

Anne Santana Secretary

After a career in museum education, Anne Santana had the exhilarating opportunity to renew a school garden and develop and lead a STEM-based garden program at a Fort Worth ISD public school. Each week she interacts with over 200 school children in hands-on learning experiences that deepen their understanding of the natural world and connect them deeply to the food they eat. The concepts they learn in the indoor classroom literally come alive in the school garden.

Anne also serves as Project Manager with Made Greene which serves the larger school garden community through educator professional development, garden development and maintenance and onsite education lessons for children.

Leigh Ann Mewhirter Treasurer

Leigh Ann Mewhirter has always loved the great outdoors. She spent summers in Iowa learning to check the crops with her grandpa and pulling weeds in the garden with her grandma. Teaching is her passion and becoming a garden educator has brought the joy of working with kids to the outside classroom. She appreciates the smiles and excitement that show up when the kids walk into the garden, eager to learn and have fun.

Lauren Budenski Membership/Social Media

Lauren Budenski has always loved being outside. Growing up on acres of land, she spent her free time exploring and helping in the family garden/ These experiences have carried over to her adult life as an educator and farmer. She is excited to share the joy of farming with the students this year!

Lara Guerra Events/Newsletter

Lara grew up in the DFW area and spent her childhood outside building clubhouses in an empty field, fishing for crawdads, and working in the family garden. She has fond memories of picking cucumbers as the sun was peeking over the trees, and of eating peaches fresh off the tree while dangling her legs in a friend’s pool. Lara loves introducing kids to gardening and takes great pleasure in seeing them get excited about their first harvest. She hopes that kids who work in the garden with her come away with an appreciation for nature, empathy for all living things, and a drive to make place in their own yards and life for the feathered, furry, and scaled creatures that share North Texas with us.