Kids learn about agriculture and nutrition
CHESTER » An urban farming program in the city expects to continue for at least five more years, teaching kids about healthy foods by actually growing them.
Greener Partners has been working in Chester for over a decade, including a program at Chester Charter Scholars Academy, where the program had a garden last spring and fall.
Greener Partners’ mission is to strengthen community health through equitable fresh food access, abundant gardens and farms, and discovery-based learning. It was founded in 2008 to connect communities in the Philadelphia area to healthy food, farms and hand-on educational programs. What started as a group of parents with a half-acre that reached 200 kids that first year has grown to include food access and food education programs for more than 100,000 in the Delaware Valley.
The school-based program arose out of a concern that only 1 in 10 children eat the recommended amount of fruit and vegetables and with the understanding that the more children are exposed to and enjoy vegetables, they tend to eat healthier as adults.
“We found that when kids fall in love with vegetables … they turn into adults who love healthy foods,” Amy Johnson, director of programs and operations for Greener Partners, said.
In fact, Greener Partners have found that kids who participate in their programs exhibit a 24 percent increased willingness to eat fruit and vegetables in their school lunch and a 27 percent increase in asking for vegetables at home.
Recently, the non-profit has been able to secure $5,000 of funding through Kimberton Whole Foods, the Foundation for Delaware County and Chester Charter Scholars Academy that is anticipated to transform the school community into a healthy food hub through seed-to-plate education, school gardening support and free fruit and vegetable distributions.
Johnson explained that Greener Partners has been offering its Healthy Schools Project since 2016 and has reached 5,000 youth, of whom 80 percent are eligible for free or reduced lunches. One of those schools is Chester Charter Scholars Academy.
“CCSA is a charter school that we are continuing to work with doing virtually,” Johnson said. “We started doing virtual summer programming with them due to COVID.”
Then, in the fall, it moved into an afterschool program for eight weeks, before having to return to a virtual format because of the pandemic. As of January, Greener Partners has been presenting virtual lessons three times a week for third and fourth graders at CCSA.
Johnson gave an example one of their lessons.
She said Greener Partners provides educational kits and in one lesson, the students learned how to root a sweet potato from a window sill. They’re also taught how to grow other foods on a porch.
“It’s kind of full circle,” Johnson said, adding the students
“We found that when kids fall in love with vegetables … they turn into adults who love healthy foods.”
of learn how food grows, how to harvest it and finally, how to cook it into a nutritious meal. That allows Greener Partner to provide both food and nutrition education to the students.
In addition, Johnson said, they have a fresh food component in which Greener Partner works with distributor Common Market to provide vegetables or fruits, such as sweet potatoes or carrots, to feed 30 families at the school.
“When that fresh food is being distributed, we make a correlation with recipes,” she said.
When pandemic guidelines are not in place, the organization has a mobile urban farming program that drives around to different schools.
“It’s that hands on component on bringing the farm to the school,” Johnson said.
Then, they had a garden at the school last spring and fall. The students grew food, then learned how to cook healthy meals through various recipes.
“They’re way more excited to try something they’ve grown,” Johnson said. “Most people think it comes from the supermarket. It’s proven to be a really successful approach.”
Jennifer Camp, 21st Century Community Learning Center Program Coordinator at Chester Charter Scholars Academy, said that was a key component of the after school program.
“I think probably the connection to food and where food comes from,” she said of one of the largest impacts of the program.
In addition, she said the program crossed subject matters from science to nutrition to cooking.
“It didn’t fall into one subject matter,” she said.
Unfortunately, because of COVID, the program has had to shift from hands-on to a virtual model and even last fall, it had low turnout as there was an overall hesitancy because of the virus.
However, Camp said CCSA and Nicole Deritis, CCSA’s Director of Elementary and 21st Century Programs, appreciates how Greener Partners’ virtual program reaches 100 third and fourth graders every week.
The garden part hasn’t been utilized during this current semester,” Camp explained. “It was last semester. They were planting and harvesting and making recipes. They planted garlic seeds. We had some raised beds we hadn’t used since last spring. They cleared the beds and put down compost and soil.”
Indoors, the students learned such skills as pickling.
“They loved it,” Camp said. “I think because the kids in Chester, it’s more of an urban environment, they don’t necessarily have a lot of experience getting their hands dirty with the soil.”
And, she said, they also don’t necessarily have that connection that food comes from the ground.
“The kids that did it absolutely loved it,” Camp said. “They were really excited to be able to get their hands dirty.”
She said it’s a great fit for the school’s 21st century programming.
“This is one of the things we like about the 21st century is that we have these funds to engage outside partners,” Camp said.
Through the Kimberton and Foundation for Delaware County funding, Johnson is optimistic that Greener Partners will be able to expand CCSA’s school garden.
She said they were in discussions with the school right now to get more free fresh food to families,
Jenny Dunker is an instructor from Greener Partners. as well as expand the garden as conditions permit.
Camp is hoping to see the school garden resumed this fall.
“We absolutely love what Greener Partners does and were excited about expanding that partnership,” Camp said.