Mission

Celebrating neurodiversity through biodiversity.

Purpose

Valmonte Farm & Garden provides vocational training and social inclusion opportunities for all students of PVPUSD, plus the community, in a safe, pleasing environment.  We are more than a farm. We are a shared community experience emphasizing health, wellness and creativity through growing your own seasonal food.

Core Values

Our space is a celebration of diverse skills and a training ground for building on individual strengths. We do this through three core steps.

1. Learning and preserving practical skills. Students and visitors gain education in practical skills such as using tools, cleaning, cooking, gardening, building, weaving, canning, preserving, harvesting and composting. Valmonte Farm & Garden - to the greatest extent possible - uses traditional and natural methods for farming, gardening and living including regenerative and organic techniques to preserve the sanctity of the land. In every application, students and visitors are applying logic, reasoning, science and math.

2. Practicing social-emotional skills. Like gardening, learning never stops at the surface. When a student handles a pitch fork, they learn accountability and trust. Caring for chickens and cats builds empathy and responsibility. Selling at our farm stand gives students a chance to practice conversational skills. There are few solo tasks on the farm. Working as a team with a common goal where each step is connected - from planting seeds to eating food to composting scraps - we are building relationships, belonging and purpose.

3. Transferring skills. The final step is the “meta” purpose of our work on the farm. When a student practices these practical and social-emotional skills on the farm, the skills transfer throughout life. Students can make better sense of the world and ready themselves for independent living. Many go on to their own homes and vocations using the skills gained in the farm.

Programs

Seed to Plate

Our Seed to Plate program started in 2002 with PVPUSD and Chez Melange restaurant to provide local, chemical-free vegetables to local restaurants and our community. We currently sell produce, eggs and plants to the community through our Farmer’s Markets.

Children’s Nature Immersion

Children are increasingly growing up in a nature-deprived world. Our children’s nature immersion program gives kids a chance to be kids. You will find them digging in dirt, pulling weeds, tasting peas, making mud pies, jumping tree stumps and balancing on logs three mornings a week. The chickens squawk with delight when tiny hands show up each day with dinner scraps and steamed vegetables for the morning feast.

“We all want the same things: love, acceptance, clean air and food”

Nancy Lemargie, Valmonte Farm & Garden

It’s been an amazing journey from the acre and a half of scrub oak, Italian stone pine, and piles of construction debris to a beautiful thriving Farm & Garden that was created from a piece of Palos Verdes Unified School District property. We began in September 2012 with Enrichla, took a break until June 2013, and have been going full force ever since.