On January 20th, 2016, the Senate Agriculture Committee passed Child Nutrition Act Reauthorization (CNR) through the Improving Child Nutrition Integrity and Access Act of 2016. The latest iteration of this bill includes a number of exciting developments, including a doubling of annual funding for the Farm to School Act from $5 million to $10 million. While outlook for the bill does look promising, it still has yet to be passed into law. As we await ultimate CNR outcome, it is inspiring to look at programs and organizations currently making a huge impact within the school garden and childhood nutrition spaces. Here's a tiny snapshot of the multitude of programs doing amazing work across the US:
School gardens have a long history of connecting students to food and wellness education. These are just a few of the many programs currently working to create and sustain school gardens within their local communities.
City Sprouts - Boston, MA
CitySprouts collaborates with public school communities to develop 'resource-rich' school gardens. Their 'seed-to-compost' hands-on learning programs focus on high-need, urban schools. The CitySprouts model aims to ensure that the gardens they plant and maintain serve as not only a resource for teachers to share food and health concepts, but also as inspirations for increased engagement from school communities and families. CitySprouts' partnerships comprise over 20 elementary and middle schools. Their middle school programs include summer and after-school opportunities that empower adolescents to connect their garden experience to creative life-skills projects.
Gardeneers - Chicago, IL
Gardeneers works with schools to build new or improve upon existing garden education programs. They collaborate with teachers and staff to adapt their curriculum to different needs and priorities within K-12 school settings. In addition to hands-on gardening instruction, Gardeneers' garden educators introduce students to concepts around nutrition, community and sustainability through art projects, discussions and games.
Enrich LA - Los Angeles, CA
Enrich LA has a bold and wonderful mission - "a working edible garden in every Los Angeles School." Founded in 2011, the non-profit has already created over 70 school gardens. After establishing a new garden, Enrich LA's Garden Rangers provide weekly maintenance while sharing lesson plans on gardening, nutrition, wellness and environmental stewardship. Each week, the largely volunteer and intern-driven team brings garden education opportunities to 40 partner schools.
School Garden Project of Lane County - Eugene, OR
The School Garden Project provides garden resources, educational programming and professional consultation to support the development and maintenance of school gardens across three local school districts. Their support services include a lending library of garden tools and books, access to starts and seed packets, and free participation for teachers and volunteers in garden education workshops. In addition to helping schools bring garden education into the school day, the School Garden Project also provides resources for the establishment of after school garden clubs.
REAL School Gardens - Texas, Maryland and Washington DC
REAL School Gardens executes a five-step process to establish gardens in low-income elementary schools. Their "Design & Dine" events build enthusiasm around new gardens and ensure that the garden design provides a solid foundation for continued momentum. Next, their "Big Dig" events draw upon the efforts of students, parents and volunteers to bring the garden to fruition in just one day. Moving forward, REAL School gardens provides lesson plans, teacher training and evergreen support. The program's efficient model results in 53,000 students having access to REAL school gardens every year.
One of the best ways to teach children healthy food habits is by providing good food options at school. Wellness in the Schools and the Chef Ann Foundation are two organizations that show the potential for school cafeterias to serve as centers of engagement around health and sustainability.
Wellness in the Schools
Wellness in the Schools (WITS) offers a number of of health-related programs for public schools. Their Cook for Kids program provides alternative cafeteria menus and seasonal hands-on cooking labs to connect students to different aspects of healthy food choices. I spoke with a WITS chef, Ellen Emerson, who discussed the importance of emphasizing connections between eating and learning. "Throughout the cooking labs curriculum, we find ways of threading and reinforcing concepts by referring back to ways in which ingredients were used in past recipes and by tying lessons back to what's being served in the cafeteria," Emerson explained.
A key goal for WITS is to empower schools to become independent providers of healthy meals and nutrition-based learning. To that end, Cook for Kids promotes expanded salad bar options and trains kitchen staff around building and serving menus with higher percentages of scratch-cooked recipes. The Cook for Kids program currently has WITS chefs working with 75 New York City schools and is expanding its tools and technical assistance into California, New Jersey and Florida.
Chef Ann Foundation
The Chef Ann Foundation offers a number of programs and grants to expand healthy food options in schools. Its Lunch Box program, for example, helps school districts and food service teams incorporate fresher ingredients and scratch-cooking practices into their cafeterias. Lunch Box comprises a suite of online resources that provide a breadth of strategies and tools to facilitate schools' transitions away from reliance on processed foods. Lunch Box's offerings include training videos, grant opportunities, management tools, recipes, menu cycles, strategies for implementing salad bars and breakfast options, and tools for marketing initiatives.
These are just a few of the organizations across the US that provide important foundations for student engagement with sustainable food and healthy eating. For more information, check out our post: Farm-to-School: Why We Need It and How to Get It.
© 2016 GRACE Communications Foundation
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