Growing Gardens, Growing Kids

Key Facts:

• Engages students and families with hands-on gardening experiences at the farm
• Cultivates Joy and builds skills through the planting, weeding, and harvesting cycles
• Fosters healthy eating, environmental awareness, and land stewardship
• In recent years 700 – 1,200 students participate in field trips annually
  

Schools around the nation are changing the way they feed kids — for the better! Common Roots continues to cultivate 50 organic raised beds at the Growing Gardens site at the Farm at South Village. Through an ongoing partnership with the School’s Out program, Preschools, the Dreamers and classroom educators, Common Roots is now hosting seasonal field trips to Growing Gardens. Our Farm Educator works with students preschool through grade 8 to plant, cultivate, and harvest a diverse selection of vegetables!  We also make time to explore the beautiful landscape, wooded areas, production farm and of course, visit the chickens!

“The success of Growing Gardens, Growing Kids continues to inspire me,” says Food Educator Kayli. “It’s all about the experiences.  It’s a student discovering he does like carrots.”  A six-year-old boy in camp this  summer had this to say “I didn’t know I liked carrots!”  He surprised himself and proceeded to keep a tight grip on his carrot top.  When his mother came at the end of the field trip to pick him up, he ran to her and belted out, “I do like carrots!”

It’s pounds of food pulled from the gardens, increasing the access to fresh certified organic produce for families to select weekly in our Community Food Share program. It’s encouraging a generation of children to develop healthy habits and to deepen their connections to their natural world.

What happens to the harvest?

Food grown in the Growing Gardens, Growing Kids program is consumed within our community:

1. Students participating in field trips to the Growing Gardens site discover that fresh-picked string beans make a tasty snack and tomatoes taste “soooo good!” Students may bring food they harvest back to their school for snacking, homes, or summer camps where they engage in hands-on learning as they prepare the food.
2. Food harvested at the Growing Gardens, Growing Kids site partially supplies Farm to School lessons serving >1,100 students in three elementary schools each month.
3. The Community Food Shares (CFS) program uses fresh vegetables harvested through the Growing Gardens, Growing Kids program for the shares for participating families to select.

Interested in scheduling a field trip to the Growing Gardens, Growing Kids outdoor classroom?

Contact: Kayli@commonroots.org (please write “Growing Gardens, Growing Kids field trip” in the subject line); 802.652.0188.