Education Programs in Inglewood Jeopardized by Federal Funding Freeze
Grades of Green, a local environmental education nonprofit with roots in the South Bay, has been serving students across the globe with the leadership skills needed to take action in their communities since 2009. In 2024, the organization was fortunate enough to receive a grant from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to build green spaces in schools across Inglewood Unified School District. Grades of Green made it a priority to partner with the Inglewood community due to the long history of environmental and economical hardships in the area since 1948. Throughout the years, large scale developments such as the construction of SoFi Stadium, the Intuit Dome, and the extraction of natural resources in the north end of the city have contributed to a nexus of environmental hazards. According to the EPA’s EJScreen tool (referenced in 2024), datasets have shown that Inglewood’s burden for environmental risk is within the 95th-100th percentile due to the city’s proximity to freeways in addition to deficiencies of green spaces–which are essential for improving local air quality–for families across the city.
Utilizing funding from the EPA, Grades of Green made incredible impacts throughout 2024 across multiple schools. One of the most impactful events took place at Bennett-Kew Elementary School. With local partners LAcarGUY and Kellogg Garden Products, Grades of Green brought hundreds of students, teachers, and family members together from the Inglewood community to put in new edible and pollinator gardens across the campus. For many students, this was the first time they had ever learned about the importance of how and where their food comes from. This single event sparked children across the school to learn more about how they can take environmental action with many of them starting other projects such as waste sorting and donating food to fuel their new found passion for sustainability with Grades of Green’s support. One student from Bennett-Kew even went on to speak to over 400 members of the South Bay community on how his school is becoming a trailblazer for sustainability across the city. This exact scenario is only a single example of the 6,672 students that Grades of Green is currently supporting across Inglewood.
For the past year, Grades of Green has executed and planned multiple events with students across the city. However, multiple incidents at the start of 2025 are putting these plans in jeopardy. Due to recent executive orders, Grades of Green has been stripped of its resources from the EPA that funds these essential projects in Inglewood. Coupled with the recent wildfires, cities like Inglewood have felt the effects of climate change to a greater degree through lack of access to clean air and water in addition to historical economical hardships. To support the community during the fires, Grades of Green worked closely with the EPA to pursue funding to meet basic human needs to the community by retrofitting current water fountains, providing masks, and developing plans to install air purifiers for areas of high traffic (i.e. lunch rooms, libraries, etc.) so students could continue their work of extending green spaces safely. However, these plans have now been halted in the wake of federal grants being stripped from the community based organizations despite federal judges challenging the issue. Supporting communities like Inglewood has always been a long standing goal for Grades of Green to support environmental justice communities who face difficult socio-economic challenges and reduced access to education resources. If you would like to continue supporting Grades of Green in its mission to provide education to these communities, click the button below!
If you share our passion for environmental education and want to partner to support our continued work in Inglewood, we’d love to hear from you. Please reach out to our Executive Director, Dr. Kelley Lê, at KelleyL@gradesofgreen.org.
