Posts: 1,117
8/15/07 4:38 P

fabulous ideas, all. we're moving right next door to a huge twice-weekly farmers' market. i'll start there!

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Posts: 541
8/15/07 4:32 P

Yes, your welcome for the link. I thought it looked very interesting and some of the ideas could be implemented at the school level.

However as a whole, the program would be a hard sell in corprate & subsidized america.

I live in an ag town that supports farming and also does do some sustainability outreach programs. My kids have all met Jerky, Tom, and Chuckles when they were alive. Now we just have to wait for them to show up at the table.

Another thing to consider is a field trip from city to farm tour. Many farmers are happy to have their urbane counterparts come for a visit. In the community I live, half a dozen farms open themselves up for tours simultaniously for the folks up in the urbane areas. Usually it broad spectrum of dairy, beef, pork, vegis, fruit, and crop. You should be able to set something like this up through your area 4H. If you do not have a local one, I would begin looking towards the farmers markets in your region and talking with the producers there to see if they would be interested.

Good luck!

Posts: 1,117
8/15/07 3:25 P

thx for the link!

and amen amen amen! that's exactly what i mean - outreach to the parents, and lots of it.

LOVE the HFCS bumper sticker and the human doing one.

and preach away....

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Posts: 541
8/15/07 3:18 P

http://www.ecoliteracy.org/programs/rsl-guide.html

You don't have to get preachy Liz, I will.

I believe that the outreach you are calling for needs to be at the level of the parents.

The children learn all about healthy eatting habits at school and have a great understanding and a desire to eat healthy.

However, all the education in the world at the level of the children will not fix what is being purchased by the parents and allowed at school by the parents adults in charge.

Unfortunatly, most adults do not understand what a healthy food is. A healthy food is food from the earth (plant & animal). It is not something that was invented in a lab somewhere and is grown in large vats in a factory. Low calorie, fat free, sugar free does not equal healthy.

The children will eat what the parents give them. End of story. Parents choice.


here are what I call (non original) bumper sticker philosophies that all parents need to embrace. They will go a long way in combating obesity in childhood:

~Eat the Earth~
~Be a human doing, not a human being~
~HFCS = Hyper Fat Child Syrup~
~Just say NO Transfats~
~Do what you should~

Told you I could get preachy. Anyway, hope this helps

Posts: 1,117
8/15/07 1:27 P

These are all fine suggestions; however, they're rather like preaching to the choir, no? I'm interested in reaching out beyond my family to others at the public schools - call it proselytizing, but my heart aches when I see kids (a large percentage of them, and usually the same ones every time) arriving at school with their fast food breakfasts in hand. It's mindblowing and frightening to visit the zoo and see a class of kids on a field trip and realize that 90% of them are overweight, and of those 50% are obese. And what are they eating? Junk food by the handful. I'd love to hear about ideas for outreach through the schools....

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Posts: 541
8/14/07 11:14 A

something else to look into is your local 4H program. They usually accept at age kindegarten and go all the way thru high school. Also, some churches and local towns will set up community gardens.

My kids are in awe as they watch their Halloween pumpking grow up and are much more willing to sample vegies out of our garden than the produce isle. My kids also had a lot of fun with the sunflowers

Posts: 52
8/6/07 8:30 P

We are planning to have a small garden at home this upcoming year...we have already started a compost pile and are soon going to get the ground ready! Very exciting for us!

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8/5/07 5:22 P

I agree that having a garden at home is a much easier. We planted one last year and my daughter loved picking the carrots. It is really hard to implement at schools because of limited space and the number of students on each campus.

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Posts: 19
8/3/07 1:13 P

That would be a good project for your kids at home. It doesnt have to be a huge garden just a small one with 2-3 rows enough to give them responsibility. This could be put on a corner or side of the house. It's also a good source of exercising.

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8/3/07 12:54 P

My kids were involved with a "Garden Club" at school. Each class planted a veggie and then the Club tended the garden until school ended. It sorta got out of control after that. My kids wandered over during the summer and eventually got up the nerve to ask if they could weed it and pick some. They got permission but the adult supervisior beat them to the picking part and they lost interest in the weeding part if there wasn't any "prize". They had fun watching it grow and tending to it while it lasted, but we too have the school year time line issue.

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8/3/07 12:42 P

It sounds like a similar concept to some of Mel Bartholomew's "Square Foot Gardening". Our school year would not allow enough growing time for an edible garden unless someone would tend it all summer while we were not there, but we do have plants that the students care for around the school. Some have been planted in memory of staffed and students who have passed away.
It sounds like a great idea for the students to have foods that they grow and then eat.

Posts: 105
8/3/07 12:21 P

That sounds like an awsome idea! I wonder if they do that here?

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Posts: 1,117
8/3/07 11:56 A

You get the school do donate space (ha! not an easy thing in the city!), businesses to donate plants, volunteers to donate labor, and you plant a garden with the kids involved. They then care for it and get to learn about biology, sustainability, nutrition, cooking, and it helps provide food for the cafeteria. When kids are invested in the production of the food they tend to eat it, so it's a great opportunity to teach them to eat healthy.

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Posts: 105
8/3/07 11:51 A

I would like to know what an edible school yard is?

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Posts: 1,117
8/3/07 11:43 A

Does anyone have any experience in starting an "edible schoolyard" in their public school? I've been reading Thomas McNamee's bio of Alice Waters/Chez Panisse and am very inspired to do this, but don't know where to start. Would love to hear your experiences and advice.

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