Theme: Service Learning
— Helping Kids and Communities Grow
Nutritious Lessons: Snack Food Garden
"A parent volunteer in my multiage class
was appalled with the sugary snacks he saw the children eating
during mid-morning
break," reports Wesminster, VT, teacher Irene Canaris. "As
a farmer concerned about children's awareness of healthy eating,
he offered to help us create a 'snack garden' that now nourishes
the entire class throughout the school year."
Irene's students plan and plant the garden each spring, then
with their families take turns caring for it during the summer.
When children return in September, their first fall snack preparation
adventure is harvesting and canning 85 pints of dilly beans.
And that's just the beginning of the garden snack menu.
In math class, students multiply a recipe for pickle brine,
then make crock-style cucumber pickles. "Children who
initially refused to sample a fresh green pepper were clamoring
for them after watching their friends eat them in class," reports
Irene. Other snack foods include fresh cherry tomatoes, carrots,
apples, and peas, and transformed vegetable treats such as
carrot cake, carrot soup, roasted pumpkin seeds, baked potatoes,
and mashed potatoes with rutabagas. To increase the quantity
and variety of nutritious snacks, the class decided to write
letters to local food businesses, describing the program and
asking for donations. Locally produced cheddar cheese, apples,
peanut butter, and crackers are now regularly featured foods.
But Irene's snack garden does more than just provide healthful
foods: It nourishes students' bodies and minds while also supporting
the curriculum. Students design garden maps, conduct pH tests,
take soil temperatures, and conduct investigations in their
classroom GrowLab. "When our children are planning to
triple a carrot cake recipe so 40 of them can eat it for a
snack, 3 times 1/2 cup of raisins becomes a meaningful math
problem," explains Irene. "As they keep journal entries
about their garden, they are becoming articulate writers. If
they are sitting beside their garden on a warm September day
with sketch paper and pastels, capturing the last yellow of
the sunflowers, surely they are having an intimate aesthetic
experience."
Is the snack garden encouraging students to make healthier
food choices? Here's some feedback straight from a parent: "When
I pick him up, inevitably the first unsolicited bit of information
I get from him concerning his day is about what he had done
in the garden and/or what he ate for snack. He has an awareness
of the process of getting food to the table and also a wider
range of food he will eat."
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© 2009
National Gardening Association