More than 12,334 school gardening programs around the country support classroom curricula and promote healthy eating habits. With farm-to-table rooted in the public domain, farm-to-school programs are growing in new ways.
“We garden to teach kids where food comes from,” says Emily Felderman, visual arts teacher at Laurel School in Shaker Heights, who along with music teacher Cara Tweed, started a garden program for third through fifth graders. “The girls experience great joy in growing their own food. Watching a seed begin to germinate and transform into a mature plant is a magical process.”
They’ve grown radishes, spinach, lettuce mix, garlic, peas, collards, daffodils, basil, oregano, thyme, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, pumpkins, beans, corn, and rye. They start seedlings using a light cart and use a cold frame to grow produce year-round.
“The girls take tremendous pride and ownership in the garden,” Tweed says. “Every two weeks, different students are assigned to be horticulturists. They lead the work that needs to be accomplished during their tenure. The horticulturists make announcements regarding the progress of the plants’ growth. They talk to the chefs about how they might use the garden’s produce in our meals.”
The dining staff uses the produce for daily lunches.
“They also incorporate the garden into lessons,” Felderman says. “Gardening also allows for great opportunities to teach math,” she adds. “Predicting, estimating, graphing, and determining perimeter are concepts we have integrated into this curriculum.”
This spring, the fifth-grade girls are designing and building new accessible garden beds for a planned expansion of the garden. As part of the design process, they consider the needs of those with limited mobility, calculating the cost of the necessary materials, and constructing the beds themselves using a variety of tools.
To provide tools for educators, programs from organizations in and around the region are stepping up to fill the gaps.
Local Lessons for Growing Minds is a USDA grant-funded collaboration among regional educators, nutritionists, and the public sector that meets state standards and STEM requirements.
The free, new curriculum, available from Spice Field Kitchen in Cleveland, includes 10 lessons and is designed for schools, educators and community organizations to engage students in kindergarten through fifth grade with multimedia and hands-on learning experiences. Through the lessons, students learn about local food systems and how to make healthy food choices.
“We’ve done all the lesson planning,” says Alison Patrick, program manager at Feed Our Future from Cuyahoga County Board of Health. “All teachers and students have to do is plug it in.”
Spice Field Kitchen partners with school and community organizations to deliver agricultural and culinary experiences, from the classroom to school garden spaces.
Spice Field Kitchen’s Chief Operating Officer Steven Baker oversaw development of the curriculum. A licensed educator for 20 years, he spent 16 years as a teacher in Lorain and has dual licensure in integrated social studies and special education as an intervention specialist.
“Anybody at any age can learn something new about food and cooking. Exposure at a young age leads to foundational changes in a person’s relationship with food,” says Baker. “We want to show everyone how simple, fun and rewarding it can be to be more involved in your food system.”
Spice Field Kitchen has been working with different Northeast Ohio classrooms since 2017, including Parma City Schools, Tremont Montessori, Welsh Academy at St. Ignatius High School, and more.
“We find it so important for students to learn about fresh and healthy foods,” Patrick says. “They’re creating their eating habits at a young age. This helps them develop healthier habits throughout life.”
