Every kid knows the age-old battle of facing down a heaping plate of vegetables. However, Louisa County Schools have found an ingenious method to solve this problem, they’ve started student gardens and turned the challenge of getting kids to eat their vegetables into a creative opportunity.
Randy Herman, the Nutrition Director at Louisa County schools, believes firmly that equipping someone with the ability to grow their own food is equivalent to ensuring they will never go hungry. True to his philosophy, Louisa County schools have initiated an innovative program that encourages kids to grow their own food. A facet of the ‘garden to table’ initiative, the project seems to be a hit with the students.
Take the second graders at Trevilians Elementary School for example, who recently went green-thumbed, trying their hand at gardening. Admittedly, the endeavor began with a fair share of skepticism from the children. Whenever the instructors announced the day’s planting – brussel sprouts or beets, for instance – the response was a chorus of ‘ew.’ However, the school’s nutrition director had an interesting response to these reactions. He would counter, “We don’t do ‘ew,’ we’re going to taste everything.”
Take Hailee, a second grader who began the adventure with a doubtful mind, but as it turns out, gardening has grown on her. She describes the experience as ‘super fun’ and looks forward to planting at every opportunity she gets.
The gardening initiative is not just about teaching kids to grow their own food; it’s also a hands-on experience where they can learn about different gardening environments and alternatives. Students are shown that gardening doesn’t require ample backyard space. They are taught to grow food in a bag of soil health or a pot – underlining the notion that anyone can grow their own food, regardless of where they live.
Kylie Hoffman, the 4-H Program Educator in Louisa and a former student and teacher at Trevilians, got to experience firsthand the excitement that gardening brought to her students. She describes the joy of watching the kids she had taught for the past three years grow both in age and in their passion for gardening.
The ‘fruits of their labor’, so to speak, eventually end up in their school cafeteria. The student-grown vegetables are also showcased during a “tasting” party held in December. The theme of this event is the “two bite club,” where the focus is primarily on enjoying the food rather than shying away from it. Surprisingly, 90% of the students end up loving the very vegetables they once cried ‘ew’ at.
These students, full of joy and smiles, work in the gardens, eagerly awaiting the day they will harvest what they had once only seeded. Observing their palpable excitement and immersion in the gardening activities is something that makes Randy Herman particularly happy. His heart fills with joy when he watches students play and learn in the dirt, eagerly looking forward to what they believe is a new adventure each time.
Speaking of new adventures, Hailee, who once turned up her nose at vegetables, now has a different crop in her sight. For her next round of planting, she wants to grow strawberries. From her eagerness, it’s clear that the student garden initiative has aroused more than just an interest in vegetables—it’s cultivated an appreciation for gardening and a broader palette for home-grown food.
In the creative corridors of Louisa County Schools, the battle of getting kids to eat veggies has clearly gotten a green makeover. The student gardens have not just succeeded in enhancing the kids’ taste for vegetables but have also instilled a love for gardening and taught them an invaluable skill – that of growing their own food. The next time these kids say ‘ew’ at a vegetable, it might just be because it didn’t come from their own garden.
