Community Nutrition and Urban Gardening

The Community Nutrition and Urban Gardening program grew out of the need to support the ecological sustainability of local communities. In addition, the program’s values and goals reflect the need to reverse the increased food insecurity and youth obesity in urban communities. The Community Nutrition and Urban Gardening program seeks to reconnect local young people and their families to one another and the earth, to food production, to sufficient, healthy and nutritious eating, to adequate and enjoyable exercise, to lifelong learning and to an ethic responsible stewardship of the land. The program has started various school gardens at elementary and middle schools. The gardens are a place where students can learn how to plant, maintain and harvest a garden. In addition, the youth are exposed to a variety of healthy fruits and vegetables, and they are able to learn the principles of nutrition and to cook and prepare nutritious meals. In addition to gardening, the program works with teachers in the schools in order to incorporate nutrition into their school curriculum.

The goal of the program is to build sustainable, local, urban gardens, in order to deliver more reliable and better nutrition to today’s youth and urban communities.

Since its inception, the Community Nutrition and Urban Gardening program has created four urban community and school gardens and has worked with teachers to incorporate nutrition education into the schools' curriculum.