School Lunches

    Local food is the buzz word now (thank goodness!) and many schools and univesities are beginning to grow their own food. For a few years now we've been helping several public and private schools in the  Nashville area create and maintain their own school gardens. We donate the plants, our expertise and our time to get the gardens started and students take care of the crops and harvest the goodness for their school lunch programs. It's been a wonderful partnership and learning opportunity for the students. Garden-based learning is beginning to be cited as a number one way to promote healthy development in youth. Children who are taught and engaged in where their food originates have a deeper understanding of the importance of eating healthy and learn science and nutrition concepts while working in the garden. With the current obesity crisis among youth in the United States, school gardens and farm-to-school programs are receiving more and more attention. By being active in their own school garden, students are engaging in anaerobic exercise while becoming familiar with the produce they have grown themselves, an experience that will hopefully increase the appeal of vegetables in their diet! With many school districts cutting physical education programs, school gardens will likely become even more important in the school community.
    As a former teacher of twelve years, I can vouch for the value of hands on learning. Since students spend more time at school than in their home during the school year, classrooms become small communities for children. Losses and triumphs in each others' lives are wept for and celebrated, and for some students, the classroom community is the only one in which they feel accepted and secure.
School gardens do more than provide produce for the school cafeteria. They are a community builder in the classroom and connector among the diverse population in many schools. I hope to see many more school garden programs "growing" in the Nashville community. Nationwide they are becoming popular not only in elementary schools, but also on college campuses. Below is a link to an article about colleges growing their own food. Locally, MTSU students grow their own produce and hold a farmers market to sell the excess. What a great hands on opportunity for agriculture majors and our future farmers!

http://www.onlinecolleges.net/2012/01/29/10-colleges-growing-their-own-food


-Amy