Food, Food & Drink, Kids, Kitchen, Kitchen Confidential:
How Does Your [School] Garden Grow?
We’re always inspired by initiatives that help kiddos learn about taking care of themselves as well as our earth through smart, hands-on activities. A good example: The Kitchen [Community], a nonprofit established in 2011 by The Kitchen family of restaurants in order to connect kids to real food by creating Learning Gardens in schools and community organizations across America. Learning Gardens are affordable, easy-to-install modular garden systems designed to be a place where children want to play and teachers want to teach — thereby helping to decrease obesity, improve academic performance, and strengthen communities.
In its first year, The Kitchen [Community] successfully built 21 Learning Gardens in Colorado, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Arkansas. But last week was a huge milestone for the group: it installed five gardens (two in Los Angeles, three in Colorado) in seven days alone. All the work was done by the schools’ communities with minor direction from a Kitchen [Community] team member. And if the nonprofit can keep up with this rate, its garden installations could reach 250 schools per year. It’s a positive first step in helping students grow — and our fingers are crossed that it can eventually expand to reach the country’s 100,000 elementary and middle schools. Want to find out how your community can design a Learning Garden and apply for a grant? Head over to thekitchencommunity.org. (And be sure to check out pics of last week’s installations below. Congrats, Kitchen [Community]!)
Photos: thekitchencommunity.org
