Working in Gardens Equals Healthier Kids

Kids, Gardening, and Nutrition

We all struggle, as parents and as educators, with teaching children how and what to eat. Healthy eating habits, especially in a world saturated with misleading advertisements and addictive sugars, can be difficult to instill in growing, impressionable minds. Especially in light of overcoming the extraordinary challenges of obesity, these lessons become all the more important. But how do we make those lessons pack the most punch? How do we make sure that children absorb the information and then apply it throughout their lives? One article titled “Integrating local agriculture into nutrition programs can benefit children’s health” may just give us insight into a possible answer and, as someone versed in theories about child development, this insight makes a lot of sense.

The authors of the article, Rachel E. Scherr, Rachel J. Cox, Gail Feenstra
and Sheri Zidenberg-Cherr, assert that “garden-enhanced education” (31) promote healthy choices among school aged children. Working in gardens, coupled with in classroom learning about nutrition and plant needs, actually has kids choosing fruits and vegetables in the long term, on their own. But, kids need the option of healthy food in order to make those decisions for themselves.

That’s where programs like “Farm to School” (32) come in. These programs connect local farms to the schools in their area, resulting in fresh, healthy foods being delivered to enhance school lunches. These programs are all over the United States and are starting to reverse the common conception that school lunches are just about heating plastic wrapped food in a microwave before kids arrive (which, unfortunately, still also happens).

My experience with “Farm to School” is a bit different. Though I’m not sure if my school participates in a program that sources the fruits and veggies served at lunch from local farms, every month my students are able to sample a fruit or veggie (and sometimes a protein) from a local farm. The food is always fresh delivered and is accompanied by a lesson about the item’s nutritional value and about the farm it came from. Usually, the foods that are served for sampling are new for students and seeing the pictures of the farmers and the farms were they were grown really makes everything concrete for little minds.

It’s no wonder that being hands on causes children to be more proactive about their health, even if they aren’t aware that is what is happening. According to developmental learning theories, children learn best when they are engaged in hands-on experiences. From these meaningful experiences, they are able to acquire knowledge and understanding about the world around them. It is no surprise then that students who complete hands on activities in a garden or classroom will then use that knowledge to make better choices. Plus, kids love to work outside and get messy!

Basics for Getting Started

With these findings in mind, how can we as educators and parents start to promote healthy habits through gardening and agricultural awareness if, unfortunately, we don’t have access to programs like these or we don’t have a garden?

Mini potted gardens are a great way to get kids outside and working, even in a confined space like an urban school or an apartment. We rent my house and, consequently, are unable to make any changes to the landscape. As a response, I have taken medicinal plant classes and learned all about how to help plants flourish, even in pots. Right now, we have a peppermint plant that is doing particularly well and my son loves to rub his fingers on the leaves and snag a few bites when he goes outside. There’s nothing like picking or harvesting right off the vine or plant to get a kid eating his vegetables and greens. At my son’s preschool as well they have potted plants and flower boxes that the kids help maintain. I’m told that my son is able to pick mint and eat it right out of the garden!

At home, we use terracotta pots like the ones shown below. They have held up very well, though you will have to get different sizes as the plats grow.

At the school where I work, a few teachers have used planter boxes on wheels to start their gardens. They usually grow seasonal vegetables, with some flowers thrown in as well. The good thing about making these planter boxes mobile is that they can be wheeled inside over a long weekend or in the winter, as well as moved into the sun when needed. It has been a great way to get kids looking and observing the growth of the plants and can be easily integrated into life science lessons.

These rolling planter boxes are similar to the ones used at my school, however these are a bit smaller.

     

You will need seeds and dirt, obviously. I recommend heading over to your local gardening store to get these items. Make sure that the seed packets you get, or the sprouts if you decide not to grow your plants from seeds, say organic on them. Also, usually gardening stores have premixed soil good for sprouting or starting your plants. Make sure to read labels to get the right kind of soil.

Conclusion

Kids need to get outside, they need to get dirty, and experience life first hand. Gardens are great reasons to experience all that nature has to offer and influences children’s development and life long nutritional choices. Share your positive experiences gardening with kids in the comments! Thanks for reading!

References

Scherr, R. E., Cox, R. J., Feenstra, G., & Zidenberg-Cherr, S. (2013). Integrating

local agriculture into nutrition programs can benefit children’s health.

California Agriculture, 67(1), 30–37.