School gardens are fantastic. But they require a tremendous amount of work – which begs the question: Who can do all the work involved in growing a school garden?
There is so little support for school gardens, and yet attaining the Millennium Development Goals is at severe risk owing to rising malnutrition and high rates of child stunting.
The vast majority of work involved in creating and maintaining school gardens falls on teachers, who are already clearly overworked. Some teachers have gotten in touch with the Let’s Go Farming School Garden team in the hope that they will be able to maintain the garden, or install container gardens, so students can have a safe place to do gardening tasks. And while some of the necessary gardening tasks fit seamlessly into the school schedule and make for ideal, hands-on learning experiences, some simply do not.
However, it is common to see a teacher, at the end of a very long day, installing bird-netting over the seedlings; heading out to the hardware store to replace a leaky valve; or sitting down at a computer to request a grant for a toolshed.
The good news is: there is a better way. In fact, the Lets Go Farming School Gardening team – having worked with thousands of educators across the country – has seen unequivocal evidence that school gardens thrive when there is funding; not just for materials and training, but also for a leader. This funding can go to create decking areas for recreation – such as the ones created by companies as part of the social responsibility activities to provide a safe space for the children to go and enjoy nature.
Many schools cannot support their school garden and need support from the Let’s Go Farming School Gardening team to spearhead requests for funds or grants.
Objective for Let’s Go Farming School Gardening fundraising
To identify school garden attributes and practices that most strongly contribute to garden use and sustainability, and translate them into recommendations for improving garden-based nutrition education.
Design
Surveys were developed and administered to schools and stakeholders to assess the barriers, strategies and resources for successful school garden-based nutrition education. A panel of school garden experts identified thriving school gardens. Logistic regression was used to identify which attributes predicted thriving school garden programmes.
Setting
Approximately 50 schools across Greater Accra and Ashanti Region.
Participants
A total of 123 school teachers and 50 administrators.
Outcomes
Barriers, strategies and resources relevant to successful school gardening nutrition programmes.
Conclusions and Implications
Adequate administrative and funding support is fundamental when implementing a school garden to improve garden-based nutrition education.
Sponsor a school garden in your community by partnering with Lets Go Farming School Gardening to improve nutrition education in your future feeders.
About the Writer
Ewurama is the programme lead for Let’s Go Farming programme. The programme in 2021 successfully implemented vegetable school gardens and nutritional education in 20 schools of the Greater-Accra Region. This year the programme is rolling out school gardens in the Ashanti, Northern and Volta Regions. Reach us on [email protected] / [email protected]
