Kinder-gardeners: The Power of Nature to Nurture

Eat Smart, It's in the Garden grant recipient, Central Child Development Center in Rock Hill, recently had an article published about their successful school garden program. In an article for Exchange magazine (http://www.childcareexchange.com/), Dr. Linda Hutchinson-Harmon writes about the wonderful partnership between the pre-schoolers with special needs, four year old kindergarten students and middle schoolers in the Rebound Alternative Program. Together, these students, teachers and parents have been able to create a great gardening program where reading, measuring, biology, nutrition activities and so much can be learned by all participants.

School Garden Grant Recipient Success Stories

Earlier this summer, an in-service day “Ag in the Classroom” seminar was held by Farm Bureau in Charleston for South Carolina’s school teachers. The seminar was used to highlight several facets of agriculture that can be incorporated into a school’s curriculum and a portion of the seminar was devoted to school gardens. A representative from each of the five schools who received school garden grants through the Department of Agriculture last year delivered presentations providing an update of the progress of their school garden. The impact that the school gardens have had on these schools is astounding! It was reported from all schools involved that the children developed a deeper desire to learn – their curiosity about the origin of their food carried over into other school subjects. Some schools even reported behavioral changes, with students behaving better because they knew that misbehaving would restrict their time in the garden that day. Students became so involved in their gardens that they were even asking to spend their recess time working in the garden – watering the plants, pulling weeds and just tending to whatever their garden needed at the time. It was apparent from these testimonials that our state’s children are being given an opportunity to participate in an activity that they are excited to learn about! We look forward to hearing continued updates about these success stories and are excited to see what the next year has in store for other schools across the state. Be looking next week for each of the presentations to be posted on the South Carolina Department of Agriculture webpage!