School Gardens May Combat Childhood Obesity

Many of these programs have yielded promising results, such as improved science test scores (Klemmer, Waliczek, and Zajicek, 2005; Rahm, 2002). Evaluations of farm-to-school programs have shown improvements in child and teacher eating behaviors, food service at the school level, farmer involvement, and parent attitudes and/or behaviors toward healthy foods (Joshi, Azuma, and Feenstra, 2008). Children who received garden education combined with nutrition education wished to eat more fruits/vegetables than those who received only the nutrition education, or those in control groups (Parmer et al., 2009). These children also had an increased ability to identify fruits and vegetables and higher confidence in preparation (Somerset and Markwell, 2009). In addition, these types of programs appear to have a greater effect among inner-city students, especially in nutrition and food knowledge (Beckman and Smith, 2008; Somerset and Markwell, 2009). Our study was designed to assess the impact of a school gardening curriculum on children’s knowledge of and intent to eat fresh vegetables. - See more at: http://www.choicesmagazine.org/choices-magazine/theme-articles/transform...