PHOTO CREDIT: ALICIA DICKERSON

Life Lab Science Program
Kids Learn How to Plant it, Grow it, Eat it!

Students at Linscott Charter School in Watsonville are washing carrots fresh from the garden for a class salad. In another classroom, children have written letters to the cafeteria director requesting more fresh food in the cafeteria menu. One such letter pleads for broccoli, apricots and more whole grains in the school lunch. Across town at Freedom Elementary, teachers have been talking to parents about ideas for healthier snacks. At Hall District School, the garden has been reinvigorated with a new drip system and fencing, allowing the classes to harvest lettuce and plant pumpkins for the fall. And at Amesti School children are participating in fruit and vegetable tastings of local produce.

These schools are participating in Plant it, Grow it, Eat it! —a garden based nutrition education project run by Life Lab Science Program and supported by the Pajaro Valley Community Health Trust. The program worked with four schools in its first year to increase the number of nutrition education sessions integrated into the curriculum, one of the Community Outcome Objectives of the Go For Health! Plan for Santa Cruz County.

Life Lab, a non-profit organization based in Santa Cruz, has over 26 years of experience helping schools develop gardens for applying academic learning in subjects such as science and nutrition. School gardens are a natural place to help students learn about eating fresh food as part of a healthy lifestyle, says Life Labs Education director Erika Perloff. Research tells us that children are more likely to choose fresh food when they participate in growing it themselves. Observation shows us that children who grow gardens learn to appreciate and love the flavors of fresh foods. They also learn to enjoy the physical activity and fresh air that gardening provides, ahealthy alternative to sedentary activities like watchingtelevision or playing video games.

Life Lab staff also worked with UCSC students to do physical work in each school garden, helping to create more growing areas and enhance existing gardens with new features. At the end of the year, each school planted crops to grow over the summer, so that returning students will be able to harvest vitamin rich foods like winter squash, and try popping their own corn. Next year the project will take on four new schools, while continuing to support the existing four. The program is changing the way children eat, one carrot at a time!