Cultivating Community through the World of Plants, Permaculture, and Regenerative Agriculture
Our Mission
To enrich the lives in our community by providing a model for designing and growing accessible outdoor learning environments that produce food, clean water, habitat, fiber, and climate stability. We seek to educate and inspire through the teaching of science, nutrition, and sustainability via farm- and garden-based programs.
Our Vision
We envision a world that embraces healthy outdoor interaction, observation and discovery – where emotional, behavioral, and intellectual development are supported alongside a thriving environment. The gifts of the garden provide children and families the experience of gratitude, and future generations will benefit from enhanced environmental stewardship. It is natural and healthy to cultivate food, habitat, and community, and we aim to reawaken this vital expression in our visitors for the benefit of our planet’s future.
Our Practice
By providing immersive educational activities through classes, workshops, garden clubs, youth programs, field trips, tours, and events we enable our visitors to discover, engage, learn and reflect in the farm and garden environment. Our focus is in providing the scientific knowledge, ancient skills, tools and seeds needed for the challenges we all face. We practice organic regenerative agriculture to ensure the long term viability of our land and water resources for future generations.
2023 Highlights
400+
Students involved in farm-based science and wellness education
100+
Families involved in farm-based experiences to learn, discover and reflect
5,000
Pounds of nutritious organic food provided to the low income community
Get Involved
Parker Learning Gardens is a 501(c)(3) Nonprofit Organization
The directors and instructors at Parker Learning Gardens include teachers, social workers, scientists, artists, farmers, plant breeders and seed producers.
Parker Learning Gardens was founded by John Brady Sundquist.
Our list of interventions to achieve cultural change include:
– Providing gains to the children and families of our community across a diverse range of critical growth areas including personal well-being, food security, nutritional awareness, environmental stewardship, and community connectedness.
– Providing early childhood educators with common scientific language for the names, stories and songs they weave to describe the natural world.
– Developing a 33-acre organic farm into a model for outdoor learning.
– Specialized gardens that teach food, fiber and medicine production; in addition to pollution and drinking water cleanup.
– The production facilities to share our efforts.
Future generations face dire biological challenges —famine, climate collapse, natural disasters and more pandemics. How will earth’s children clean up pollution? Protect biodiversity, the Earth’s web of life? Overcome resource depletion? Battle emerging diseases, antibiotic resistance and science denial?
Parker Learning Garden is taking strong steps to help people perceive, understand and protect their green world, the real world. Please consider helping us grow our efforts.
Donate Today
Our name honors benefactors Jeanette and Richard Bennett Parker. As a microbiologist, Dr. Parker was an American pioneer in probiotics. Decades before 21st Century DNA technology suggested it, he taught that the natural world originates from “invisible” microbiomes.
Location & Mailing Address:
Parker Learning Gardens
31239 Lanes Turn Road
Coburg, Oregon 97408
Federal Tax ID: 84-4521040
