Former SF Giant Hunter Pence's nonprofit helps clean up garden at Tenderloin school

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Former Giants star Hunter Pence got his hands dirty at Tenderloin Community Elementary in San Francisco Tuesday.

"I think it's incredibly important, especially to the school districts within the city," Pence said. "There's tons of science behind greenery, just improving childs' success rates and just the health and benefits of having the green spaces around. And so it really is just an awesome opportunity to help beautify the school and give them a lot of volunteer hours and minutes that they need to help get that work done."

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Some 30 volunteers added dozens of plants at the school, moved compost into the school and removed a truckload of debris. They also rehabbed sunshades there. This is just in time for school to start next week.

"I think the kids are going to be thrilled," said Cadi Poile of the San Francisco Unified School District. "I hope the kids are thrilled. There is a direct correlation between green space and student achievement so even if they don't notice it immediately, it does help improve their mental well-being, their social well-being and their student achievement."

Hunters' nonprofit Healthy Planet Project partnered with the school district and organizations including the California Academy of Sciences and Reimagining San Francisco for the cleanup.

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"The Tenderloin is an area that actually has very little green space, very actually has very little tree canopy cover," said Alvaro Casanova, Reimagining San Francisco program manager with the California Academy of Sciences. "Tree canopy cover is really important, for example, for high heat days that we're having a lot of these days and so we're really trying to just bring some greenery, bring some nature back to an area that is very urban, very concrete and hopefully enrich children's lives."

As part of the outreach, volunteers gave out free compost to the community.