Our IMPACT

School-based garden programs work! HFHK is more than radishes, turnips, and arugula. HFHK is on a mission to create a healthier future for today’s kids. Our Education Cultivation program is designed to assist schools in delivering curriculum that impacts three critical areas: nutrition and health, science learning, and life skills.

Because our HFHK students participate in the school garden over several years and growing seasons, they grow in their understanding of gardening science and in their love of vegetables. We’ve seen these students progress from a spot where these vegetables are new and novel to them to a place where they are willing to experiment both in the garden and in the kitchen.

STUDENTS AND TEACHERS BELIEVE THE GARDEN IS A catalyst for student learning.

“It was AMAZING to see the level of excitement as our students planted, harvested, and ate vegetables that grew in our garden. Who would have thought that lettuce would become the number one requested vegetable at school? The students were motivated to taste the lettuce they had grown and super motivated to share their experiences with their families.”

JANET HICKMAN, EARLY LEARNING CENTER, INDIAN RIVER SCHOOL DISTRICT

“The garden provides my students with experiences no textbook, videos, or curriculum lesson can provide. Students are learning what it takes for a seed to grow, how the weather system will affect the growth of the plants, and how to plot and graph plant growth. The garden has served as a living laboratory that provides a real-world context for lessons across subject areas.”

DIANE MAHOT, SHORTLIDGE ACADEMY

“This makes you feel like you can experiment. I will have a garden when I am older. I can experiment more and be a scientist”

MARSHALL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 5TH GRADE STUDENT

HFHK SCHOOL GARDENS awaken students TO THE DISCOVERY OF VEGETABLES. WE FIND STUDENTS:

are willing to eat the vegetables that they grow….even radishes, turnips and kale! At Springer Middle School, 96% of the students that grew radishes in the garden actually tasted them.

think vegetables are delicious! Students at Serviam Girls Academy found this to be especially true when the vegetables were prepared in creative ways.

are excited to harvest their vegetables at the end of the season and try delicious new recipes. The students at Shortlidge harvested their vegetables and prepared delicious recipes which they were very excited to try.

will even ask their parents to buy or grow more vegetables at home. Ian’s class grew radishes in their school garden, and then tasted them in the cafeteria. Ian had never had a radish before, and discovered he loved them! He loved them so much, he started growing them at home.

JUST HOW MUCH PRODUCE CAN A SCHOOL GARDEN PRODUCE?

It turns out a lot! In the Spring of 2019, students from Odyssey Charter School harvested a total of 306.10 pounds of crops from 24 raised beds. That’s over 12.5 pounds per bed and equivalent to the weight of a baby elephant! See the graph below to see their crop yields.

Bar graph of spring garden crop yield

THE RESEARCH

INDEPENDENT RESEARCH STUDIES SUPPORT HFHK’s FINDINGS.

This startling quote published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition highlights the importance of a healthy diet: “More Americans are sick than are healthy, largely from rising diet-related illnesses. These conditions create tremendous strains on productivity, health care costs, health disparities, government budgets, US economic competitiveness and military readiness.” (Fleischhacker et al., 2020).

In 2016-17 Delaware had the 16th highest obesity rate for youth ages 10 to 17, according to The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s (RWJF) 2018 State of Obesity Report. Obesity-related health spending continues to climb in the state, and by 2030 is projected to exceed $1.8 billion per year (RWJF Issue Brief: Bending the Obesity Cost Curve in Delaware).

Can eating more vegetables make a difference? Absolutely! A systematic review of cohort studies found that increased vegetable consumption is correlated with reduced risk of overweight or obesity (Nour et al., 2018).

Can vegetable gardening inspire children to eat more vegetables? Yes again! In 2012, Langellotto and Gupta conducted a meta-analysis of studies that examined the impact of gardening on children. They conclude: “Gardening increased vegetable consumption in children, whereas the impact of nutrition education programs was marginal or nonsignificant.” A 2012 study by Meinen et al. looked at the impact on elementary students of Wisconsin’s “Got Dirt?” program, a gardening curriculum without formal nutrition education. Pre- and post-testing revealed a significant increase in children choosing vegetables over candy/chips.

Can a school garden program be designed to be practical and resource efficient? HFHK has done just that! Our program provide the benefits of gardening through a low-cost, practical program that can be implemented in most Delaware schools. HFHK students typically participate in as few as two to four hands-on garden lessons per school year and eat the vegetables they have grown in the school cafeteria as few as four times per year. HFHK research using cafeteria observations and/or pre- and post-surveys for HFHK program schools showed that even one or two hands-on experiences in the school garden resulted in students trying new vegetables if they grew them themselves and learned new science concepts (HFHK unpublished studies 2010-11 and 2013-15). Control schools in these studies did not see changes in trying new vegetables or in science learning, indicating that the effects were due to HFHK’s programming. Further, students in the HFHK program were more likely to eat a salad if it was grown in the garden than if it was not (Cotugna et al, 2012).

References

Fleischhacker, S.E. et al., 2020. Strengthening national nutrition research: rationale and options for a new coordinated federal research effort and authority, Am J Clin Nutr, 00: 1-49.

Nour, M., Lutze, S.A., Grech, A, Allman-Farinelli, M., 2018. The Relationship between Vegetable Intake and Weight Outcomes: A Systematic Review of Cohort Studies, Nutrients. Nov; 10(11): 1626.

Langellotto, G.A. and Gupta, A., 2012. Gardening Increases Vegetable Consumption in School-aged Children: A Meta-analytical Synthesis. HortTechnology, 22(4): 430-445.

Meinen, A., Friese, B., Wright, W. & Carrel, A. 2012. Youth gardens increase healthybehaviors in young children. Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition, 7(2-3), 192-204. doi:10.1080/19320248.2012.704662

Cotugna, N, Manning, C, & DiDomenico, J. 2012. Impact of the use of produce grown in an elementary school garden on consumption of vegetables at school lunch. J Hunger Environ Nutr. 7:11-19.

For more literature and information on the impact of school gardens, see the National Farm to School Network’s fact sheet: http://www.farmtoschool.org/Resources/BenefitsFactSheet.pdf

For additional studies supporting outdoor education:

Ernst J, Juckett H and Sobel D (2021) Comparing the Impact of Nature, Blended, and Traditional Preschools on Children’s Resilience: Some Nature May Be Better Than None. Front. Psychol. 12:724340. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.724340 

Ernst J, Sobel D and Neil A (2022) Executive function in early childhood: Harnessing the potential of nature-based practices to elevate and equalize outcomes. Front. Educ. 7:1011912. doi: 10.3389/feduc.2022.1011912

Kuo M, Barnes M and Jordan C (2019) Do Experiences With Nature Promote Learning? Converging Evidence of a Cause-and-Effect Relationship. Front. Psychol. 10:305. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00305

McCombs, J., Whitaker, A., & Yoo, P. (2017). The Value of Out-of-School Time Programs. Perspective.https://www.wallacefoundation.org/knowledge-center/Documents/The-Value-of-Out-of-School-Time-Programs.pdf 

Sobel, D., Larimore, R. (2018). Nature Cements the New Learning: Expanding Nature-Based Learning into the K-5 Curriculum. In: Cutter-Mackenzie, A., Malone, K., Barratt Hacking, E. (eds) Research Handbook on Childhoodnature . Springer International Handbooks of Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51949-4_30-1

For additional resources:

School Garden Support Organization (SGSO) Network is an open peer-to-peer learning network with the goal of growing, sustaining and elevating a movement of equitable garden-based education.

Life Lab - Bringing Learning to Life in the Garden Since 1979!

Eat Right Delaware - Delaware Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics News & Information

Kids Garden Community - The Kids Garden Community is a free community supporting individuals, families, and organizations with the skills, tools, and connections to garden with kids and scale transformative programs.