Venice is at risk of losing a beloved neighborhood farm to a long‑fought hotel development. But there is a rare chance to keep its animals, its magic, and its teaching power right here in the community at Westminster Elementary.
What’s happening to The Cook’s Garden
The Cook’s Garden has been a green heartbeat on Abbot Kinney for more than a decade, weaving together chefs, neighbors, rescued animals, and school kids in a tiny but mighty urban farm. After years of hearings and appeals, the long‑planned Venice Place boutique hotel and mixed‑use project on Abbot Kinney finally secured its approvals and is moving toward construction. That project will eventually replace the current site of The Cook’s Garden, forcing this small sanctuary and the animals who live there, to move.
For Venice residents it’s the culmination of more than a decade of organizing, public comment, and legal challenges over what kind of development belongs on Abbot Kinney. Many neighbors fought to preserve small scale, community serving spaces like The Cook’s Garden and it’s neighbor, Ecole Claire Fontaine, amid concerns about traffic, loss of neighborhood character, and the steady erosion of places that actually serve locals. Now, with groundbreaking rescheduled for mid‑2027, there is a short window of time to turn that loss into a long‑term gain for kids and families across the street.
A kismet move: across the street to Westminster Elementary School
Right across from the current farm sits Westminster Avenue Elementary, a school that already has a thriving outdoor education program and beautiful gardens. Through Friends of Westminster and a dedicated crew of Master Gardeners and community volunteers, the WE Garden “seed‑to‑table” program has been teaching students how to grow food, care for plants, and understand where their meals come from. It is an outdoor classroom in the truest sense: hands in soil, eyes on pollinators, and kids learning science by living it.
That’s what makes this moment feel like kismet: Geri Miller, LA County/UC Davis Master Gardener and founder of The Cook’s Garden, is working with Westminster’s principal on a plan to relocate the animal sanctuary onto school grounds as a dedicated, rodent‑ and predator‑proof sanctuary run. The proposed design includes a coop, a bunny bungalow, a foster area for new rescues, storage, and a partially covered structure that doubles as an outdoor life‑science classroom. Think butterfly labs, egg incubation, and year‑round science lessons beneath heat lamps and shade. These are the kinds of hands‑on experiences that turn “science class” into “I want to be a scientist.”
Sprawling, alive, and fully woven into the school day, Westminster’s gardens turn science into something kids can touch, grow, and experience in real time.
What this sanctuary will make possible for kids
Bringing the farm across the street does more than save a beloved Venice space; it deepens Westminster’s existing garden program and makes animal care part of the school day.
Here’s what this new sanctuary at Westminster Elementary School can mean:
Life science labs right on campus. Students can observe lifecycles, ecosystems, and animal behavior in real time instead of just reading about them.
Sensory rich space for kids who need calm: fur to touch, ducks to watch, soft clucks and rustling straw to ground anxious nervous systems.
A living lab for stewardship: students can feed chickens, refill water, harvest herbs, and understand responsibility and reciprocity with other living beings.
A neighborhood resource where families can participate in volunteer days, after school programs, and seasonal celebrations that connect school, home, and community.
Westminster is already a model for what a public school garden can be; adding a professionally designed sanctuary run raises the bar for what outdoor education looks like in LAUSD.
The funding gap and how you can help
To build this sanctuary, Geri and the community need to raise about $15k for materials and construction; so far, just over $5k has been raised, leaving a gap of roughly $10k dollars. The delay in hotel groundbreaking to mid‑2027 buys precious time to close that gap, source materials, and organize volunteer labor, but it doesn’t change the reality: without funding, the animals will lose their home and Westminster will miss a once‑in‑a‑generation opportunity.
To keep the momentum going, The Cook’s Garden is launching weekly Wednesday after school farm fundraisers from 2:30–5:00 p.m. starting April 22, in partnership with Venice’s Only the Wild Ones. These afternoons are designed to feel like what Venice does best: low key, family friendly, and rooted in connection.
At these Bunny Hoppy Hour style events, families can:
Visit and feed the animals, from rescued bunnies like Freddie to the flock of chickens and ducks.
Enjoy wood‑fired pizza and beverages while kids play lawn games, color farm‑themed pages, and explore the garden.
Purchase small items from the farm gift table, with proceeds supporting construction of the sanctuary run at Westminster.
Ticketed entry helps cover costs and seed the building fund; adults must accompany children, and no dogs are allowed, to keep the space safe and calm for the animals.
If you can’t make it on Wednesdays, you can still help:
Donate directly to the sanctuary build fund
Sponsor materials: lumber, hardware cloth, roofing, storage units, or patio heaters for the outdoor classroom.
Organize a class, business, or block club fundraiser to “adopt” part of the build, like the bunny bungalow or butterfly lab area.
Volunteer your skills: construction, permitting, grant writing, fundraising, translation, or communications to support Geri and the Westminster team.
Let’s help make this happen!
Venice has always been a tension between speculation and rootedness, between projects built for investors and places tended by neighbors. The hotel project on Abbot Kinney is part of a larger pattern of high end development that has reshaped the boulevard over the last decade, replacing many small scale community uses with destination retail and hospitality. Yet spaces like The Cook’s Garden and now, potentially, the Westminster Animal Sanctuary, show another path: development that grows from care, education, and the daily lives of families who live here.
Helping fund this sanctuary is not just charity; it is civic design. It is choosing to turn an imposed change (the loss of the current Cook’s Garden site) into a permanent investment in public school kids, urban biodiversity, and community resilience. It is saying that Venice’s future should always include places where children learn that their city is alive and that they are capable of caring for it.
If you’re a Venice Rising reader, you already know how much we believe in that future. Join us in making sure the animals, and the lessons they teach, stay right here in the neighborhood, just across the street.
