If You Want a Child’s Mind to Grow, Plant a Seed
E Each
fall for the past five years,
Bulloch County
second
grade students have been able to participate in an After School Garden Program at five elementary schools: Langston Chapel, Mattie Lively, Mill Creek, Julia P. Bryant and Sallie Zetterower. Due to a partnership between the Bulloch County Board of Education, Statesboro-Bulloch County Parks & Recreation Department (SBCPRD), Lee Family Farms, the Georgia Southern Center for Sustainability, the Departments of Biology and Health and Kinesiology, and the office of Student Leadership & Community Engagement, these students are able to learn about food through hands-on tending of a school garden; planting, nurturing and harvesting their own crops. The gardening takes place each day during the SBCPRD’s After School Program, “Our Time.” For ten weeks beginning in early September, the children work along-side Georgia Southern student volunteers learning lessons in plant biology, agriculture, health and nutrition. For the first time some learn that the source of food is not the grocery store, but the earth.
36 • Statesboro Magazine
The children also learn the benefits of growing their own food and other important aspects of gardening and sustainability. For six weeks they learn about plants and the benefits of gardening, and for four weeks the lessons focus on making healthy food choices and nutrition. At the end of the ten-week program, the students, who have tended the raised garden beds from planting seeds to weeding, nurturing and harvesting the produce, are treated to a Harvest Celebration at the SBCPRD’s Honey Bowen Building. At the Harvest Celebration, the Georgia Southern student volunteers, along with the students from all participating elementary schools, come together to share their experiences with each other and to enjoy the preparation and eating of the fruits and vegetables they’ve grown. The After School Garden Program has gained statewide recognition for the partnership of the organizations that supports the program and for the effective way it introduces students at an early age to the many benefits of growing their own food. S