a fresher future

(Healthy Eating Learning Opportunities and Nutrition Education)

Schools with their own garden space create unique learning opportunities for students of all ages, including much needed instruction regarding nutrition and wellbeing. School gardens also provide fresh, healthy foods for students, with the added satisfaction of having grown these vegetables themselves. In a world where our kids spend less time in nature and have a woefully limited understanding of our complex food system, school gardens are now more critical than ever in the development of our youth.

In addition to their poor understanding of where food comes from and how it contributes to their health, many students do not have proper access to nutritious food. Despite its dense population, much of Phoenix does not feature any reasonably walkable access to a grocery store. Below, the white spaces represent areas with no grocery stores within a 10 minute walk. Without fresh and affordable food to fuel their bodies and minds, children are unable to maintain stable energy throughout the school day, while their overall health remains at risk.

Not every school currently has a student garden, but for those that do, that space gains value when paired with thoughtful curriculum. One challenge for schools without an existing garden program is generating a curriculum for students so their time invested in the garden is well spent. Existing curriculums also show schools apprehensive towards adding a garden program the value students and teachers gain from this addition.

With Arizona's Education Standards as well as the idea of 4E Cognition in mind, we created a curriculum for first-graders targeting four areas: Health and Wellness, Science, Language Arts, and Math.

Here is one activity for first-graders targeting Arizona Standard 1.OA.C.6: Fluently add and subtract within 10. Students might spend 20 minutes weeding and watering their garden, then complete their worksheet before graduating to counting real insects living in their plots.

Math: https://www.canva.com/design/DAFR9dXBsL0/-1MbBwr28POBpHXEU-cbdg/view?utm_content=DAFR9dXBsL0&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

Language Arts: https://www.canva.com/design/DAFSD4lgTgw/FV-_1XsK09g959zkMVRArQ/view?utm_content=DAFSD4lgTgw&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

Science: https://www.canva.com/design/DAFSVX41B2E/GZ2yDfUnY8G8P8TKHmwrcw/view?utm_content=DAFSVX41B2E&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=publishsharelink

Here is a fun and interactive Language Arts activity, which aims to cover two Arizona Standards: 1.RL.4: Identify words and phrases in stories or poems that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses, and 1SL.4: Describe people, places, things, and events with relevant details expressing ideas and feelings clearly.

Through worksheets such as this, students will become more familiar with the process of adding and subtracting while enjoying a garden-related theme. For more ideas, read our full curriculum  here .

However, these activities are nothing without on the ground leaders in the classroom. Meet Lou Rodarte, master gardener at Echo Canyon School in Scottsdale Unified School District. Lou's gardening knowledge and passion for educating students enhances the learning that takes place in the garden. While a prewritten curriculum makes having a school garden easier for schools, someone like Lou would help relieve time and effort from teachers as well. Currently, many of the "master gardeners" in Arizona schools are volunteers.

We believe in a future where all students have access to fresh, healthy food in order to achieve their best in school and in life. School garden programs, if wildly successful, could be the change we need to achieve this goal for future decades. In 2042, we hope to see a world where every school has its own garden and children are taught where their food comes from and how it changes their minds and bodies.

That's a future worth growing for.