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School Gardens
Jeremy, a fifth grade student at Hazelwood Elementary returned to the table of garden food to serve himself seconds on the salad he helped grow, harvest and prepare. "Knock me over with a feather." Jeremy's mom muttered, "I have never seen that boy eat salad in his life."
Students will eat what they grow. The school garden component of Growing Minds is the link between healthy eating and reconnecting students with their agricultural heritage.
Sarah is an awkward pre-teen who will be entering middle school next year. "[The garden] gets her out from in front of the television." her grandmother explains. "I have always had a garden at home, but this year Sarah wants to help and make the garden bigger."
School gardens can be a powerful learning experience for students, offering hands on experiential learning and a connection to where food comes from.
The Growing Minds program began with Emily Jackson's third grade class and the garden they created. Emily used her classroom garden to engage students in the magic and discovery of growing and eating your own food. Integrating it into her classroom curriculum, this powerful experience for students was seen in the books they read, the poetry they wrote and their excitement about learning.
From this first garden has grown a Farm to School program that includes school gardens, local food in schools, farm fieldtrips and nutrition education. Correlating garden activities into standard course of study objectives, providing hands-on/minds-on experiences, and building a connection to healthy fresh foods makes the school garden component an important piece of Growing Minds.
Working through a Health and Wellness grant, Growing Minds has "adopted" a school garden for the past two years. Emma and Isaac Dickson Elementary received time and resources from Growing Minds to create and develop their own programs. Last year Growing Minds had the unique opportunity to have a full time ASAP staff person, Molly Nicholie, work to implement a Growing
Minds with Seniors program at Hazelwood Elementary school in Haywood County. This project involved creating a school garden program for K-5th grade students and working with grandparent volunteers and a local retirement facility.
This year Growing Minds will work towards creating a "bridge" between established farm to school/school garden programs and those that wish to begin a program. Our role will include providing teacher workshops and curriculum resources, connecting resources from one school to another, providing support for special projects and assisting in volunteer recruitment. To learn more about the school garden component of Growing Minds please contact Emily
Jackson or Molly
Nicholie.
Resources
Vegetable Planting and Seed Saving Instructions
Best practices for using produce from school gardens
Appalachian Garden Trunk Available to Teachers
Links
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