Teaching Kids about Growing Food

At the beginning of this month, as I started to plan the posts for April’s challenge, I was probably mostly excited about the third week’s post...because it’s a topic that is near and dear to my heart!

Teaching kids about gardening and growing food is something that I’m involved in on a regular basis.  I jump at literally every opportunity to show children my garden and to talk about plants and growing food with them, on an age-appropriate level.

I recently saw an episode of the television show Recreating Eden about a children’s garden, created by gardener and plant enthusiast Cassie Scott, at a school in North Richmond, California.  The garden is completely integrated into the school’s curriculum, and children take great pleasure in getting their hands dirty while learning to grow food throughout the school year.

During the episode, Cassie talks about the community in which the school garden is situated. 

“Most people do not have access to fresh vegetables, and before the school garden project, some kids didn’t know it was okay to eat food that didn’t come in a plastic wrapper.  “Is that real?” a student recently asked when she saw a purple cabbage growing in the garden.  There are no grocery stores in North Richmond, only liquor stores."

While this is an extreme example of how vegetable gardening can impact a child, lessons about growing food can be taught to children in other smaller-scale ways on an every day basis.  For example, the Bowmanville Community Organic Garden, which is funded in part by the Durham chapter of Canadian Organic Growers, has partnered up with the YMCA Early Years Centre to form a children’s gardening project.

Each year, volunteer gardeners go into neighbouring schools and talk to kids about gardening, the importance of growing food, and doing so organically.  The children are invited to participate in the community garden program, and if their parents are also willing to commit their time and energy to the garden, they are selected for participation.  Each year, with the help of volunteers like me, the children grow carrots, beets, potatoes, beans, squash and tomatoes, in addition to other foods.  The expression of pride on their faces when it comes time to harvest their bounty is absolutely priceless!  The children learn how food is produced, and to place a value on that food.

Children's garden plots at the Bowmanville Community Organic Garden.

If your community doesn’t offer programs like this, what can you do to teach your kids about gardening and farming?

• Take your children to local farmers markets and talk to them about where the food is grown.  Talk to the growers.  Meet the farmers, who are often on site at the farmers markets.  Turn the process of growing food into something kids can touch, taste and feel.  Click here for a listing of local farmer’s markets in Ontario.
• Grow some food!  Whether you have the space to grow a large, productive vegetable garden or simply grow some beans in a pot, bringing a living, growing plant into your child’s life will leave a lasting impression.  Most of the gardeners I know have a clear recollection of the first plant they grew.
• When driving in the car, point out apple orchards, corn fields and vegetable gardens that you see along the way.
• Encourage your child’s school to take field trips to farms and public gardens.  Ask them to make it a priority to educate kids about the importance of growing food organically.
• Buy locally grown food.  Participate in the 100-Mile Diet.  Read labels!  Stay informed!  We’ll look at this more closely in the month of July.

Please consider this an open space for discussing ideas concerning teaching children about growing food.  We’d love to hear your ideas.  Happy growing!

Comments

[kittenpie]

Our local public school has gardens and a nice green bent, which I think is great.

This weekend, we started a small garden in our backyard - a few flowers for Pumpkinpie, a few vegetables for all of us. She helped with the watering and seeding.

And at her birthday, we will have the kids plant some flowerpots to take home. Plants are pretty magic, after all, even if they aren't of the food variety.

[Izzy]

Recreating Eden is a television show? I listen to a show by the same name via podcasts. I wonder if they're the same.

[Mary]

We had the best luck with sugar peas in our gardens at the shelter. The moms and kids love (well... that's relative) but they'll eat them with ranch dressing, or stir fried and maybe put them is salads.