A Garden for your School Kitchen
Schools around the world are raising their hands to share the many health benefits of growing their own fresh food in a garden on schools grounds. There are many benefits by having a garden for your school kitchen. Whether is run by students, cafeteria staff or an outside community organization, there are many benefits of having a garden in your school and using the vegetables and fruits of your labor in your cafeteria food.
This is a good educational practice, for applying nature measures in restaurant reopening after Covid strategies.
Biology and science education
With a garden in the school, there are endless opportunities for the students to be involved. Everything from understanding plant biology while planning the garden to the architecture of the garden when building it. Kids of all ages can see first hand what it takes to go from a seed to food. Younger students can help put seeds on the ground and learn about plant cycles. Older students can begin to take on more complex tasks, like understanding what to plant for your climate, how to keep your garden sustainable and what irrigation method to use.
Necessary nutrition
It’s a fact, kids are more likely to eat fruits and vegetables if they are homegrown. Apparently just having a garden at school increases their intake of vegetables at home. There’s even some evidence that exposure to the microbes in soil can help to regulate neurotransmitters affecting kids brain’s emotional state. These are the good news for parents, teachers and students.
What to grow
It’s important to learn more about your plant hardiness zone. So you will know which vegetables will grow best in your area. That said, there are certain vegetables and plants that tend to work well in most areas of the United States. Vegetables like broccoli, carrots, chard, cucumber, lettuce and winter squash are all great foods to garden and make a good base for many school lunches.
Later the kids can learn interesting natural options like what is the heritage cooking. Then, they will also learn about their own cooking history.