A large number of United States’ young adult population can look back
and cringe at what they were served for lunch.
U.S. high school cafeterias are notorious for producing some interesting
concoctions for their students. I have
been looking at the health benefits of community gardens for another class. I came
across a gem of a study that while not the best resource for my other assignment;
I felt it needed to be shared. This
particular study shows that not all school cafeterias are created equal. It also displays that some educational
systems are striving to improve their students’ nutrition. In this article, Pearson (2008) looked at a nine
different schools in the Eastern European Republic of Moldova. These schools were auxiliary/boarding
schools. They received a support from
the Monsanto Fund and a project grant from the International Federation of Home
Economics (IFHE). The project lasted 2.5
years and their ultimate goal was to improve the nutrition of the
students. Their master scheme was to have
gardens on the school grounds. They
started out with educational workshops to introduce what good nutrition
was. The nine schools that were selected
to receive the necessary equipment for this project were in picked out of a
total of 50 schools. The IFHE grant and
Monsanto Fund allowed the schools to receive seeds, gardening supplies, and
fruit trees/bushes, seeds for two seasons.
The employees of the schools were the ones that took care of these
gardens and orchards. Any produce that was
not used by the schools was given to the local community. The students themselves were given 3 meals a
day full of diverse produce. This means
the schools were able to meet their goals of better food options for their
students. The students also gained life
skills on gardening and proper nutrition education. Do you think we could apply some type of program like
this in the United States? Would the
students have to be the ones to grow their own fresh produce? Please let me know your thoughts!
Pearson, J. M. (2008). Improving nutritional health in schools: Gardens
in moldova. Journal of
Family and Consumer
Sciences, 100(3), 42-43. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.lib.purdue.edu/docview/218174971?accountid=13360
Erin, I think we could absolutely apply this type of program in the US. I don’t think that the students should necessarily have to be the ones to grow the produce; however, I think it would be a great educational tool. It would also depend on the age and skill level of the students. High school students can handle a garden tool better than an elementary student, who may be more equipped to push the seeds into the dirt.
ReplyDeleteDuring my public health rotation in nursing school, I shadowed a school nurse in Crawfordsville. She was and is an awesome nurse and person; a few years ago she received a grant to start a healthy eating and healthy living in the elementary school. This program is called Fuel Up to Play 60. This program allowed the school to adopt healthier cafeteria food and incorporate longer, more in-depth physical education classes. A fighter for the public’s health was able to implement this program right here in Indiana, and it could be applied anywhere. I bet she would be interested to hear about this article!