Farm & Garden Camp is brought to you by 
The Farm Education Collaborative.

We are...

Hope Guardenier 
M.S. in Environmental Science

As the Executive Director of School Sprouts Educational Gardens, Hope has been instrumental in designing and implementing over 10 teaching gardens throughout the Pioneer Valley.  She works with schools, community centers and afterschool programs to realize a vision of outdoor classrooms that allow for hands-on learning and meaningful work.  Hope has a M.S. in Environmental Science and additional experience in curriculum development, program coordination, and over a decade of teaching in the outdoors.  She serves on the Belchertown Agricultural Commission and is passionate about connecting youth of all ages to their food and bringing learning to life.  She and her family live and garden in Belchertown.


Meg Taylor 
M.S. in Environmental Science, Secondary Teaching Certification

Meg has over 14 years experience in environmental and agricultural education, working with all ages, preschool through adult.  She has worked as a farm educator for Mass Audubon’s Drumlin Farm and at Shelburne Farms in Vermont.  Her urban agriculture experience includes growing organic produce at Green City Farm, working as the market manager for two Boston farmer’s markets, and serving as Project Director for Baltimore Grows – a community and youth gardening USDA food security initiative.  Meg has coordinated school and community garden programs, written garden and farm education curriculum, and taught middle school life science for several years.  She founded the Pioneer Valley Backyard Chicken Association, in which she coordinates a web site, an annual coop tour, and chicken workshops.  Meg currently serves on the NOFA Board of Directors and lives in Northampton with her family and a flock of laying hens.


Alya Stoffer-Koloszyc 
M.S. in Early Childhood and Elementary Education, Elementary Teaching Certification

Alya has danced between farming and teaching since 1996, when she began a three year apprenticeship at Intervale Community Farm, a large CSA in Burlington, Vermont.  She combined these passions in her role as Education Coordinator and Market Manager for New York City’s Greenmarket in 1999 and worked on farms between and during teaching jobs over the following decade.  Alya collaborated with city educators and market farmers to develop a kindergarten food curriculum, which evolved into her graduate thesis at Bank Street College of Education.  She has worked as a classroom teacher for eight years in both public and private settings, growing food inside and out with children from three to six years old.  She also co-directed an overnight summer camp in Brattleboro, Vermont and helped to initiate a garden program there.  Alya now makes her home and garden in Easthampton with her one-year-old son Henry and her husband Rich.