Researched Benefits of Gardening Nutrition School gardens have helped improve nutrition in the schools. If they grow tomatoes, they eat tomatoes. It is an effort to get children out of doors and away from books. Roseway Waldorf School provides healthy outdoor activity for learners and brings balance to the heavier academic activities that take place in the classroom. .cz-outer { They explained how, with the support of FoodCorps and Working Landscapes, a local nonprofit building food system opportunities in the county, they had prepared for and passed an NC Department of Agriculture audit for GAP certification. The children get to taste and see vegetables and fruit that wouldn’t normally be in supermarkets. Nearly 50 people had turned out to weed a school garden on a winter morning? Gardening can be done during class time or as an after school activity. Hands-on, applied learning really allows students to experience a full breadth of learning and engagement.”, Numerous studies confirm the power of garden-based learning that results in increases in science achievement scores, greater health and food knowledge, and improvements in general learning outcomes. The direct educational opportunities that all of these gardens allow, however, is not the end of the story. var e = document.createElement('script'); Emily Jackson works for the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP) as the Program Director for their 12-year-old Growing Minds Farm to School program. For the past school year, I’ve been taking groups of students to the garden every week, where we learn about everything from plant life to how to properly use a knife. The students experience this directly when they plant seeds, care for the plants, harvest the crops, prepare the produce, and then consume it as part of our Food For Thought organic school lunch program. Often, you get grandparents involved, too,” she says. Partway through the morning, among rich soil and over-wintered cabbages, with my hands full of weeds and my body starting to warm from the activity, I straightened up and took a good look at the people around me in the garden. } ASAP programs reach 23 counties in Western NC as well as portions of South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Virginia. To explain the latter part of the sentence, it is important to know that consciousness about the need of trees and greenery changes the behavior of the children towards trees. Research has shown improved academic achievement when a school garden is integrated into students’ curriculum. The garden is used within the curriculum of the school and she believes is of great benefit to the students “ The school use the garden to solidify learning in the classroom. Kids get excited about being in a … Klemmer et al (2005) demonstrated that third, fourth and fifth grade students who participated in school garden activities scored significantly higher on science achievement tests compared to the same grade level students who did not. This also helps in the personal growth of the children as they develop social skills and learn to work in a team. autoDisplay: false ASAP has been collecting surveys that ask parents how often their children come home from school and mention what they did in the school garden. } Really? According to AHA’s Michele McKinley, this unique collaboration provided, “service for the Greenscape folks, applied learning opportunities for the NSCU students, and school students and staff benefiting from a garden âa learning toolâthey can use for a long time.”. They explained the hard parts of starting the garden three years ago, and how the experience has changed their attitudes towards food, nutrition, and even towards their hometown. } The rise of gardening in schools has been quite staggering over the past decade. Kids get excited and can get their families involved in gardening. “The main benefit of gardening is learning to relax,” says counselor and maternal … They have an opportunity to engage in agricultural practices on a small scale, learning about the responsibilities and impacts of land cultivation. Schools gardens can provide the chance to experience vine-ripened goodness while meeting the goals of the curriculum. “As kids learn more about food they seek that same quality and experience of food when they get home,” he says. In a study done about the effects of a school garden on students’ consumption of fruit and vegetables, To start, GAP certification has costs associated with the audit and travel for the inspector, though the state offers some cost-sharing opportunities. . } Reverend Willliam Kearney, a consultant and former cop that I met at the Warren County High School garden, sees kids learning patience and overcoming disciplinary challenges by spending time in school gardens. -, Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project, Communities In Schools: Helping students succeed. He and his wife tend a large garden at home in Raleigh, NC. These events allowed a lot of work in a short time, built a shared sense of accomplishment, and fostered lasting connections. In her twelve years with ASAP’s Growing Minds, and with her experience as a classroom teacher, what does Emily Jackson think about getting school gardens going? © 2020 Inhabit Blog. In this way, the multiplier effect on production within the community is likely to be more important, in terms of production, than the school garden … School systems … use growers that are GAP certified as a way to ensure the safety of the food they purchase and serve. Gardens are amazing educational tools: School gardens are interdisciplinary, allowing any subject to be taught. Learn and expand as you go. Gill points out that the Hub Farm’s work with DPS Nutritional Services doesn’t, at this time, include selling produce to be served in school cafeterias, because they aren’t yet GAP-certified. We all know, she says, “That teachers are overburdened and asked to do too many things.”. Now I was starting to understand what motivated this diverse crowd to come out on a cold morning. Garden-enhanced nutrition curriculum improves fourth-grade school children’s knowledge of nutrition and preferences for some vegetables. As more small farms and school gardens become GAP-certified, more school systems will be able to include diverse local produce in their nutrition programs. Through gardening, students become responsible caretakers. new google.translate.TranslateElement({ From math and science to physical fitness, gardening has a place in almost every school subject you can think of. It’s no secret that fruits and vegetables taste better … Next to him was the NC FoodCorps fellow, Caroline Stover, and her Warren County colleague, FoodCorps service member Rachel Head. School Gardens help to extend the classroom beyond traditional settings by expanding it outside. } Required fields are marked *. In schools with many languages spoken, gardens help overcome language barriers. Being “Lessons in the gardens can go home with students. var _sf_async_config = window._sf_async_config = (window._sf_async_config || {}); margin-right: -15px; There is another very important need that the school gardens address when they grow vegetables, herbs, and fruits. School gardening provides children with opportunities to gain extra outdoor exercise whilst teaching them useful development skills. Erin is the interim chair of the Capital Area Food Network, a board member of Wake County’s Advocates for Health in Action, and the proud father of a six-month old boy. In a Raleigh example of garden building, a landscape contracting firm called Greenscape partnered with the landscape design practice Naked Fruits, and collaborated with students and an outdoor living group called Come Alive Outside to help Root Elementary develop its garden. It made sense to me that school gardens had to work on an educational level too. } The School Garden Curriculum provides a unique K-8th grade gardening activity plan and over 200 weekly lessons that weave science, permaculture, and environmental education into place-based and immersive learning. Contact with the natural world can also be wonderfully nurturing for children, as they make connections with natural environment, learn about the cyclic nature of the seasons, and begin to find out more about where their food comes from. var n = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; _sf_async_config.uid = 66215; })(); She starts by saying that the teachers’ ability to make things happen is critical for success. . But it’s a natural fit. Erin formed his two-year-old design firm, Community Food Lab, out of his belief that healthy communities need healthy food systems, and that socially-oriented design has an important role to play in both. Start small. To go to a more prosaic level, as the children are involved in activities of horticulture, their interest and enthusiasm in the subjects of science would grow. Gardens containing fruit and vegetables can help to revise attitudes about particular foods - students are more likely to try eating vegetables they have grown themselves and to ask for them at home. The importance of gardening cannot be understated as it contributes to the conservation of insects and biodiversity. 20 Gardens for Learning: Linking Gardens to School Curriculum Teachers use the garden as a meaningful tool for integrating science with core curriculum. Garden education seems to be highly undervalued in our society compared to standardized curriculum, yet it seems to provide broader life lessons than classroom curriculum. enabling children to interact with nature, to learn about the ecological cycle. In addition to environmental benefits, gardening has a big effect on children and early years pupils as they go through physical, emotional and social development. Second, change in local food access happens when school gardens get their produce to folks that need it. First, kids take what they learn in a garden home with them. The teachers have integrated kitchen garden lessons into the school curriculum, which incorporates science, math, critical thinking and English. Jackson’s work at ASAP also includes some hard data. Where else is this happening? Letting them shape up smaller model landscape designs should inculcate in them design knowledge, while also developing in them an aesthetic sensitivity. In another Raleigh example, my own firm, Community Food Lab, designed a school garden at Powell Elementary School that was built in a series of ‘garden mob’ work days that brought together students, parents, teachers, and community organizations to get the whole garden built over two years. This nursery operator’s ambitious vision includes a garden and greenhouse in every school in Wilson, Wayne, and Nash Counties that connect leadership, technology, and experiential learning with the food and health needs of future generations. A school garden is a powerful environmental education tool. To reduce school-generated food waste. Here’s another thing: Drawing on the support of folks like Head, every school in Warren County except one has a garden. When given the chance to spend afterschool hours in the school garden only if they could stay free of disciplinary problems, she has seen students become more self-aware of actions, working hard to control behavior, and being rewarded, strangely enough, with afterschool garden work. Warren and Stokes counties have schools gardens that have achieved certification, and the DPS Hub Farm is planning to become GAP certified. The process is not without expense, however. “Working together in gardens builds relationships,” he says, “that overcome assumptions and help bring down walls between us.”. Some of the school children who have participated in school gardening activities will also be interested in helping their parents and families in establishing home gardens. @media (min-width:1024px) { },'google_translate_element'); When students plan, plant, care for, and analyze their gardens, science and layout: google.translate.TranslateElement.InlineLayout.SIMPLE, Here is how a school garden and gardening creates consciousness in school kids about trees and greenery: School gardening assists the children in their process of learning while modifying their behavior. Amid a rehabilitated barn, an innovative floating classroom, chickens, and row crops, this project serves 70-300 students per week from kindergarten to 12th grade, using a range of agricultural activities along with extensive woods and three ponds to engage students in a wide educational spectrum. School garden food can reach people through food donations, direct sales to consumers, or when GAP-certified gardens can sell right into the school cafeteria. School gardens also foster positive social change. Before launching into food systems work, he spent four and a half years in architectural practice in Boston and NC. benefits of gardening and addresses the importance of gardening in the classroom. With only a little web research, I learned that the school system in Davis, CA, the home of agricultural research giant UC-Davis, has a farm-to-school program with a garden in every school. Creativity and community resources can help overcome this barrier. When I visited the Philippines in 1994, I saw a garden in every schoolyard. Kids get excited about being in a garden, learning to pick and eat fresh food, and will pay attention to lessons if they know they’ll get to pick beans or carrots or kale at the end of them. To find out what was going on in Western NC, I called up Emily Jackson, who filled in the blanks. Your email address will not be published. She talked about community connections, school spirit, food, and health. “When I was a classroom teacher and started a garden,” Jackson told me, “the question wasn’t nutrition or food access, the question was how to motivate kids to learn … You don’t have to talk a kid into working in a garden. While pointing at the 10-foot deer fence, the greenhouse, the various plots, and the school building itself, they talked about how this garden has been pulling people together from its inception. Well, there are two main ways that change happens. Your email address will not be published. Michele McKinley notes that, “Some school gardens donate their produce (all or some) to programs like Plant a Row for the Hungry, so school gardens are contributing to healthy food access to at-risk populations that need healthier choices.”, The DPS Hub Farm also distributes food in various ways. Should every school have a garden? Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. The primary reason is that it offers the children opportunities for horticulture that are otherwise unavailable. “School gardens are the best overlap of bringing health and education together,” Emily Jackson says, “which so rarely happens. Planting these in the school gardens would teach the children that foods do not originate in the plastic wraps and shelves in the departmental store. Gardening encourages children to eat healthier. “The garden was my favorite because of its constancy through all the seasons. Gardening enhances the quality of life in numerous ways: providing fresh food, exercise and health benefits, opportunities for multi-generational and life-long learning, creating pleasing landscapes and improved environment, and bringing people together. School gardens are interdisciplinary, allowing any subject to be taught. Jackson says that starting a garden involves upfront work that can’t be avoided. n.parentNode.insertBefore(e, n); Jackson’s Farm to School program includes school gardens, farm field trips, local food in school cafeterias, cooking classes, and even teacher training programs that expose new teachers to the educational opportunities is gardens. Unlike lectures or worksheets on healthful practices, gardens provide an experiential, hands-on … “Teachers are most often the garden champions, the do-ers who can make it happen. And as a teacher? Start small. Just like adults, kids experience stress and they need an … Remember how I said the Warren County High School garden was rare? And the need does not necessarily point toward cutting off the food costs in school. Gardens are amazing educational tools: In Durham, the two-year-old Durham Public Schools Hub Farm provides another illustration of the deep educational opportunities around gardening and outdoor learning. } School Gardens: An Experiential Learning Approach for a Nutrition Education Program to Increase Fruit and Vegetable Knowledge, Preference, and Consumption among Second-grade Students They get it.”– Emily Jackson. Gardens allow learning through inquiry.