The Delaware Department of Education partners with Healthy Foods for Healthy Kids to expand the state’s school garden education program.
The partnership launched six new school gardens, extending the program’s reach to 68 schools and about 28,500 students statewide.
This latest round saw mostly schools downstate launch garden programs with Lake Forest Elementary and East Dover Early Childhood Center launching their gardens last fall.
Laurel Elementary, Beacon Middle School, David E. Robinson Elementary and Brick Mill Elementary started gardens this spring.
The seed-to-cafeteria school garden programs are DDOE-funded, and the investment enables Healthy Foods for Healthy Kids to extend its standards-based science instruction and hands-on learning.
"Typically, grades or classrooms prepare the soil, and then another grade or specific classrooms might plant the seeds. And then there's watering and then the older kids tend to harvest the vegetables and then compost the material," said Peggy Prevoznic Heins, strategy and advancement director for Healthy Foods for Healthy Kids.
The non-profit is committed to improving children’s health by offering garden-based education to schools through the state by inspiring healthier lives by providing joyful gardening experiences.
Heins says the program also promotes healthy eating habits.
"They get to eat what they grow, and we find not just in our work but studies show year after year that when children are exposed to healthy foods early and often they are more likely to continue to eat them throughout life," said Heins.
This latest round of additions means another 3,500 students will benefit from the seed-to-cafeteria program.
