BY RACHEL FOSTER
PHOTO BY ROB SYDOR • DIGITALLATTE.COM
gardening
Food for Life
School gardens grow healthier kids
aise your hand if you’ve
ever been in a garden.” An
impressive show of hands.
“Raise your hand if you have a garden at
home.” Not bad — this is Eugene, after all.
The questioner is Jenny Laxton, program
coordinator for the School Garden Project
(SGP) of Lane County. For this 4th grade
class at Cesar Chavez Elementary, it’s their
very fi rst garden session, and Laxton is
about to lay out some garden rules before
we go outside: no running; don’t walk on
the beds; ask before you taste something;
and don’t poke people with the tools. Cesar
Chavez is one of twelve schools working
with SGP’s garden-based education
program this year. Laxton and her assistants
will meet with each participating class twice
a month through fall and spring.
Everyone is quiet and attentive in the
“R
classroom, though the noise level picks up a
bit as the students split up into groups. Then
it’s out to the garden for a scavenger hunt,
and 24 kids are in active mode. Most stay
more or less on task. The assignments range
from easy (fi nd a honey bee, fi nd something
that smells good) to challenging (fi nd an
earthworm). Together they call for careful
observation of fl owers, leaves, fruit and soil
in a garden fi lled with squash, sunfl owers,
tomatoes, carrots, strawberries and every
kind of leafy vegetable. As a bonus, everyone
gets 40 minutes of fresh air and exercise.
One in three adults in Lane County, Oregon
is overweight or obese, and so are one in fi ve
children between the ages of two and 17.
Those who are overweight in childhood set
themselves up for obesity as adults. Learning
ability and social skills can also suffer, leading
to loss of earnings and a less fulfi lling life. The
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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
have recognized that the leading causes of
obesity are eating too many calories and not
getting enough exercise. Many people, from
Michelle Obama down, are recognizing that
reconnecting kids with exercise and a healthier
diet is vital to stalling the rise of obesity and
attendant disorders such as diabetes. Obesity
costs the country billions in healthcare and
lost productivity.
A healthier diet essentially means one
lower in sugar and saturated fat and higher
in vegetables and fruit. SGP students get to
taste something from their school garden
at the end of every session. Programs like
this are a great way to introduce students
to vegetables and fruits they may not
otherwise have access to. Studies at UC
Davis show that students are more likely
to try eating vegetables if they themselves
grew them, and students are more likely to
accept similar foods in school lunches and
ask for them at home. School gardens help
kids in other ways as well. They provide
hands-on learning opportunities in many
fi elds, including natural and social sciences,
math, visual arts and nutrition. There is
mounting evidence that kids who participate
in school gardening score better on science
achievements tests. And simply getting kids
outside boosts environmental awareness.
Jared Pruch, the outgoing executive
director of SGP, told me that this is one of
only fi ve sites in Oregon (42 nationally) to
host a Food Corps member in the coming
year. This is the pilot year for Food Corps,
a new Americorps program focused
specifi cally on helping schools grow
vegetable gardens. The City of Eugene
provided $10,000 this year to help put in new
gardens and establish cafeteria composting
systems at fi ve additional schools.
Students in SGP’s education program
receive a full year of twice-monthly, one
hour gardening classes to plant, tend and
harvest garden crops. Member schools
also receive vegetable starts grown at the
Community Transition Program greenhouse,
free participation in a Garden Educator
Workshop series, help with planting a school
orchard and volunteers for work parties. At
the end of the year, SGP coordinates a spring
celebration at each participating school.
Students eat a meal fresh from the garden,
complete an art project, and pot up a plant to
tend over the summer.
SGP grew out of a school garden seminar
held at the University of Oregon Urban Farm
in 2000 and was established as a non-profi t in
2001. That makes SGP one of the country’s
older school garden programs. If you’d like
to support SGP, there are a number of ways
to do so. You can donate money, sign up for
an eScrip program or mention SGP when
you shop at Sequential Biofuels. You can also
volunteer, as a group or as an individual, to join
special project work parties or help maintain
school gardens throughout the summer.
The need is greatest for people to help with
education programs. For details, visit www.
schoolgardenproject.org or contact Jenny
Laxton at sitecoord.sgp@gmail.com.
ew
Rachel Foster of Eugene is a writer and garden consultant.
She can be reached at rfoster@efn.org
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EUGENE WEEKLY OCTOBER 13, 2011 29