GROW La Crosse Garden Education
December 21, 2017
| By Bob Lindner |
With a mission as fresh as the food it connects children with, GROW La Crosse is introducing area youth to healthy food through garden education. Following a $5,000 General Fund mini-grant awarded in 2017, GROW La Crosse continues to expand nutritious food choices to area elementary schools while positively impacting their root behaviors.
A study published in the Journal of School Health in 2015 confirmed that school garden programs increase fruit and vegetable intake and improve academic performance, and the act of planting seeds, harvesting food and exploring healthy recipes helps form positive connections between students, teachers and parents. For GROW La Crosse, the greatest impact results from full immersion in an environment where healthy food is part of the daily routine.
“With hands-on education, barriers are broken down and children connect with healthy food,” said Jamie O’Neill, executive director for GROW La Crosse.
Due to the efforts of GROW La Crosse, students are increasingly willing to try, eat, and grow gardens of their own. Over 90% of teachers from schools with a GROW La Crosse garden – Hamilton/SOTA I, Hintgen, State Road, Spence – feel that they had seen a positive impact on their student’s attitudes towards eating. Parents are also reporting that their children are becoming more inclined to make healthy food choices at home.
With a proven success record and support from participating principles and PTO’s, GROW La Crosse inspires to continue its work, ensuring gardens become and remain positive educational tools for our community’s children. Through the support of generous donors to the Foundation’s General Fund, staff and volunteers, GROW La Crosse’s efforts will connect over 1,200 students to healthy food through six hands-on education lessons in the 2017-2018 school year. These lessons will include over 3,600 visits to the garden, with harvested produce to be used in school lunches and cooking demonstrations for the complete seed to cafeteria experience. Additional produce will be sent home with students.
“Students take immense pride in their garden bounty.,” O’Neill said. “They really look forward to school meals when garden food is on the menu.”