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Nutrition is an essential building block for student success. Healthy, active, well-nourished children are more likely to attend school and are more prepared and motivated to learn.¹ Schools today have an exceptional opportunity to guide children toward healthier lifestyles by creating an environment in which students can develop lifelong habits of good nutrition and fitness.² Schools aiming to support student health can provide dynamic learning settings such as a school garden. Students who participate in school garden programs discover fresh food, learn to make healthier food choices, and have the opportunity to be physically active. Anecdotal evidence is mounting—children who plant and harvest their own fruits and vegetables are more likely to eat them.³

Obesity in children is a growing national concern and is associated with chronic diseases in adulthood. Hands-on garden-based nutritional education can help to halt this rising trend. Increasing garden educators’ and classroom teachers’ knowledge of the foundations of nutrition and providing resources that will build successful garden programs will help schools achieve this ambitious goal in the future.

The Beacon Award offers the Hawai‘i Island School Garden Network a chance to partner with nutritionists from Hawai‘i Island in creating Nutritional Workshops for Garden Educators and Class Teachers, Family Nutrition Nights, School Food Festivals, and Teacher Curriculum Resources on this Web site. These events and resources will be available in both East and West Hawai‘i.

According to a recent Department of Health Survey, 66% of all schools in Hawai‘i have school gardens. On Hawai‘i Island, 63 schools or 84% now have or are starting a school garden program. This unique opportunity for improving student health and academic achievement is growing from the ground up. Deepening the nutritional knowledge of teachers who work in school gardens makes good sense. Mahalo to the Hawai‘i Island Beacon Community whose purpose is to transform health care and help us all to live healthier lives.

¹Tufts University, School of Nutrition. Center on Hunger, Poverty, and Nutrition Policy. The Link between Nutrition and Cognitive Development in Children. Policy Statement. Medford, Massachusetts, 1994.
²Healthy Children Ready to Learn,” the Superintendent’s White Paper on Health, Nutrition, and Physical Fitness.
³J.L. Morris and others, “Nutrition to Grow On: A garden-enhanced nutrition education curriculum for upper-elementary school children,” Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, Vol. 34 (2002), 175.