Lauren Little Edutainment was designed to activate imaginations, curiosity, and knowledge about the Earth through storytelling, games and active learning strategies.

Participants emerge with a better understanding of how to connect with our Earth and its ecosystems. 

What’s Edutainment? 

Edutainment lives at the intersection of education and entertainment. Lauren Little Edutainment participants can expect experiences that engage multiple learning styles while inspiring them through puppetry, creative exploration of nature & other activities.

  • Core Values

    Lauren Little Edutainment is committed to empowerment, environmental justice, uprooting racism, honoring & nourishing the Earth, and making joy & healing accessible in everyday life.

  • Our Objectives

    Lauren Little Edutainment strives to work alongside school and community partners to create a culture of intergenerational learning to advance student awareness of and commitment to the environmental issues of their time. Whether a student pursues mathematics, psychology, engineering, art or other career paths, the need more than ever is to cultivate student minds that are equipped with creative problem solving for sustainable developments in their own communities.

  • Vision

    In staying true to the sacred practice of honoring and cultivating the Earth, Lauren Little Edutainment seeks to inspire and train the next generation of farmers.

About Lauren

Owner & Founder

 

Lauren Little is an urban farmer, educator and activist. She has worked in education for over 15 years in order to gain insight into the minds and imaginations of children. As a young girl, Lauren ate everything from dirt to whatever was for dinner. Her parents made it a point for the Littles to sit down daily for nourishing meals, something that showed her how food can unify people. Showing people how to connect nature and farming is Lauren’s most fulfilling love language. 

Lauren’s passion is to share knowledge and bring children joy through her love of nature and food. In 2013, through a collaborative effort with close friend Emily Petersen, Lauren developed a series of youth programs called Gaia’s Guides, that uses anaphomorphic characters along with original stories, jingles and dances to educate and encourage environmental stewardship. Lauren teaches Gaia’s Guides to inspire children’s love for the Earth. 

In her work as an Urban Farmer, she’s managed 60 school farm plots, taught over 6,000 students how to grow food, and fed more than 300 families throughout the Greater Hartford area. As a Public Ally alumni, Lauren consults with community organizations to address local issues. In response to COVID-19, in partnership with Mutual Aid-Hartford and the Keney Park Sustainability Project, Lauren distributed free  and fresh produce to students and neighbors. As an independent artist for Sankofa Kuumba Cultural Arts Consortium, taught Pre-K students how to grow salad. In her work with Nightfall, she navigated large puppet presentations that brought city residents joy and supported local Hartford artists. Currently, Lauren is also an  educator at Trinity Academy in Hartford and consultant with Grow Hartford Youth, teaching high school students urban farming. In addition, she works with the Free Center & University of Connecticut to provide Urban Agriculture programming. In years past, Lauren has worked with Say Yes to Education, Boys & Girls Club, and Organized Parents Make a Difference to support youth in Hartford.  

In 2018, she was awarded the Community Earth Day Award for “Stewardship and Commitment to Our Environment” from the Environmental Sciences School at Mary Hooker Magnet School’s Community Earth Day. In fall 2020, she received the National Farm to School Network Food Champion Award for her community food work. And in 2021, Lauren received the Feeding Hartford Award by the Hartford Advisory Commission on Food Policy.