Coconut Creek Volunteer Launches Garden Project to Teach Foster Children Self-Reliance

by David Volz August 15, 2025

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Aubrey Zeigler, volunteer coordinator for SOS Children’s Village and Satya Rudin, master gardener at Rotary Community Garden in Coral Springs. {David Volz}

Teaching children and teenagers about gardening is a mission for Aubrey Zeigler.

As the volunteer director at SOS Children’s Villages in Coconut Creek, Zeigler aims to create a garden where foster parents and the children in their care can learn about growing plants and develop self-reliance skills, thereby reducing their reliance on stores for food.

“I want the children to know how to plant and grow by working in a garden so that they won’t be dependent on Publix and Walmart for their food,” said Zeigler.

On August 13, Ziegler met with Satya Rudin, a master gardener who leads gardening activities and cultivates plants at the Rotary Community Garden and Food Forest of Coral Springs. Rudin discussed how a garden could be established and provided guidance on growing and caring for various plants.

Zeigler and Rudin will be working together on the project, and Zeigler hopes to begin planning and setting up a garden in September. They would start working with herbs, kale, and lettuce, and eventually move into fruits and vegetables.

SOS Children’s Villages Florida cares for children who have been removed from their families and placed into foster care in Broward and Palm Beach Counties. SOS is home to up to 72 foster children, ranging from newborn to age 18. A key goal for SOS is to keep biological siblings together. There are 13 single-family homes with full-time licensed foster parents in a residential neighborhood in Coconut Creek, according to the SOS website.

There is also the NEXT STEPS program for young adults who have aged out of foster care at age eighteen who need mentoring, employment assistance, education, and housing support, according to the SOS website.

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Author Profile

David Volz

David Volz has worked as a writer in South Florida for 35 years. He has written for the Sun-Sentinel, Hollywood Gazette, School Transportation News, South Dade News Leaders, Observer among others. He has an MA in Communications from Florida Atlantic University and a BA in Communications from Valparaiso University. Volz teaches Communications at Miami Dade College and Palm Beach State College. He lives in Coral Springs and enjoys running and participating in 5Ks and half-marathons.