Good News Fridays: Alabama Schoolchildren Learning To Eat Better Through Gardening

By Nathan Young on May 26, 2023

Welcome to the Good News Fridays segment! Each week here on Geek Alabama, Good News Fridays will feature something good, wholesome, positive, and overall something great. After a long and stressful week, we all need something good to read or watch on Fridays! Enjoy a heartwarming post below!

Desiree Hutcherson-Bates, an Alabama Cooperative Extension System regional agent, recently worked with several community partners to help students at Glen Oaks Intermediate School in Fairfield learn about fresh fruits and vegetables through a new school garden. Hutcherson-Bates works with Alabama Extension at Auburn University’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program–Education (SNAP-Ed). The program uses a complementary and multitiered approach to create healthy food environments for limited-resource communities.

SNAP-Ed partnered with Fairfield City Schools, Jones Valley Teaching Farm, Better Basics and Full Plate to construct nine raised-bed gardens, where students will plant fruits and vegetables. Lowe’s donated seeds and The Home Depot donated paint for the beds. Hutcherson-Bates wanted to make connections with community partners that have similar passions for helping create healthy food environments in schools.

“I knew working with partners that share a love for gardening and educating young minds would be the key to making this work,” Hutcherson-Bates said.

During the school year, Hutcherson-Bates provided students with lessons from Body Quest about the importance of eating fresh fruits and vegetables. Body Quest is an innovative childhood obesity prevention initiative that empowers third graders and their parents to make healthier choices. She participated in educating students about sustaining a community garden during the project’s implementation.

Hutcherson-Bates said the third-grade students and their teachers will maintain the garden. Each classroom will come up with a sustainability plan where each student has a role in the garden.

“They are going to learn so much from seeing their own fruits and vegetables grow,” Hutcherson-Bates said.

Additionally, local Boy Scouts of America Troop 3062 will mow the grass and have a role in watering the plants.

Hutcherson-Bates said the lessons taught in the garden reinforce what is being taught in the classroom through Body Quest. She said gardens offer students the opportunity to see where food truly comes from.

“These kids normally just see fruits and vegetables at the grocery store, and they typically don’t see gardens at their homes,” Hutcherson-Bates said. “As an educator, we hope that if they see the garden, that’ll encourage them to want to learn more about how fruits and vegetables grow, how they taste, and will be more engaged in the classroom.”

Gina Waldrop is a partner with Better Basics through the 21^st Century Community Learning Center in Fairfield. The after-school program regularly has a gardener talk to students about healthy eating using fresh fruits and vegetables. Waldrop said her organization was able to help fund part of the raised-bed project and allow students in the program to water and plant seeds. She said Better Basics wants to continue to build a better partnership with SNAP-Ed and Fairfield City Schools.

“A garden is a very important component of a child’s education, especially for children of color,” Waldrop said. “Because of the health issues that we have, the earlier children can start eating healthy, the longer life they may have.”

Regina Thompson, superintendent of Fairfield City Schools, praised Hutcherson-Bates for her work with students at Glen Oaks Intermediate School.

“The way that she works with the children is so important,” Thompson said. “She values that they are our future and that it doesn’t stop with her.”

Thompson said providing healthy school environments could have an impact on the students for the rest of their lives.

“They are going to learn about healthy eating,” Thompson said. “A lot of times, obesity starts at an early age. So, they will begin to learn where fruits and vegetables come from, and they’ll appreciate it more.”

For more information about the project, contact Hutcherson-Bates at [email protected]. To learn more about SNAP-Ed’s work with community gardens, visit www.LiveWellAlabama.com or visit Live Well Alabama on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

This article originally appeared on the Alabama Cooperative Extension System website.

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