TreeHugger reported on a concept garden at the Chelsea Flower Show that shows how a school can create a small kitchen garden for kids. It’s prime time for such an idea to take stronger hold, I say, with childhood obesity rates where they are.

The show garden is modeled after The Edible Schoolyard, a really neat not-for-profit piloted by influential chef Alice Waters at a public school in Berkeley (where else?). Designed to help kids make better food choices, the program runs a one-acre garden where children learn to plant, grow, harvest and prepare fresh vegetables and other foods; they shape the beds, amend the soil, turn compost and even make their own school lunches. Since it launched in 1995, the Edible Schoolyard concept has spread around the globe. There’s even some research to indicate that kids are indeed improving their nutritional outlooks through such programs.

I love this idea! It empowers kids and encourages them to be healthier by educating them about the entire cycle of food production, from “field” to “fork”.

Try the National Gardening Association for an informal database of school gardens, and check out the group’s ideas on gardening projects you can take on with your kids. 

Could The Edible Schoolyard work in your community?