Student Involvement in Gardens and Healthier Food Choices

This Action Research Project measured the correlation between extended gardening time and the amount of produce eaten by Montessori students. The project took place at a Montessori Preschool and Kindergarten in Southern California, at a school licensed for 75 children. Journals, pictures, and behavior logs of the children were taken each week. Food tallies were also collected the first and last weeks of the project. While the number of pieces of produce consumed by children did not increase in the four weeks, the amount of language and interaction in the garden and at lunchtime did. The conclusion is that extended gardening time does not necessarily correlate with more produce eaten, but does correlate with overall student engagement/involvement with activities related to healthy eating. This could mean big trends in schools with Montessori gardens; veering away from passivity, encouraging children to get invested in the gardening process lends to more engagement in healthy living. GARDENING AND HEALTHY FOOD CHOICES 3 To better determine factors in promoting health and wellness in children, a project was developed in a Southern California Montessori School, grades PreschoolKindergarten. Children were allowed gardening time in the school’s Montessori garden with Life Science-themed critical thinking investigation and activity to excite children about horticulture. Pictures, journals, and two types of behavioral scales were taken (one for gardening time, and one for lunchtime). During the first week and last week, food choices were tallied during lunchtime and teachers observations were asserted to determine if time spent in the garden increased healthy food choices in children. Review of Literature Educators in mainstream education and Montessori education have similar goals when it comes to school gardening and healthy eating. In both arenas, educators want to teach health and wellness to children. According to School Gardens (2014), “Nearly one in three American children are overweight or obese” (p. 8). This is not just an American problem. “According to the New Zealand Ministry of Health, 11 percent of children (aged 2 to 14) are now obese, and a further 22 percent are overweight. Disturbingly, the increased childhood obesity rate increased from 8 per cent in 2006 to the current level” (Barlow, 2014, p. 1). The problem continues worldwide. The more a community urbanizes, the poorer the citizens’ eating habits become (Guitart, Pickering, Byrne, 2014). How do educators across the globe teach children to live healthier? Montessori methodology teaches to the whole child: how is this accomplished (Johnson, 2013)? One way is through school gardening programs (Valdes, 2014). Gardening programs have significant benefit to communities. Preschoolers especially marvel at the food choices before them (Johnson, 2013). After participating in a gardening program, children try everything they have grown and they “exploded into GARDENING AND HEALTHY FOOD CHOICES 4 this beautiful, amazing gardens where teachers love to explore with the children. It's pretty amazing when you are able to sample what we are growing here" (Valdes, 2014, p. B3). In another report on a school’s garden there was an overarching theme: to become good stewards of the environment there needs to be spontaneity involved. Children lead their learning. To help adults connect with the natural resources and plant life in the area, increasing their confidence, purposeful teacher education was emphasized. Teaching to the whole child involved giving them the choice of ample outdoor time (Gilder, 2009). Studies by Cade, Christian, Conner, Evans, and Ranesly, (2015), correlate that the success of such programs rested heavily on repetition with children, peer modeling, and repetitive exposure to new produce to help children make healthy food choices. Studies show that gardening programs have a moderate effect on eating choices of fruits and vegetables, with an increase in one-third proportions of produce eaten (Christian, 2015). Large-scale literature reviews find the same, with a positive trend in food behavior with exposure to gardening programs; it is interesting to note that the child’s social and environmental attitudes were not marked as changed post study, however (Blair, 2009). A recent analysis of 12 New York schools found that children that attended schools with gardening programs were more active. The report suggested that these programs help nudge students toward their daily 60 minutes of recommended daily movement time as per the United States Department of Health and Human Services (School Gardens, 2014). Gardening programs are making an impact worldwide. In New Zealand a program called “Food for Life” is making large gains. In this program Barlow (2014) watched as children enthusiastically ate produce like kale and ginger. Another food program lasting seven months with 116 children marked an increase in children’s fruit and vegetable GARDENING AND HEALTHY FOOD CHOICES 5 preference at school, though home preferences were not shown to increase (Triador, 2015). In Australia, 26 schools were studied that implemented gardening programs. One school was private, the rest were public schools. There were specific links between healthy eating and activity levels in children in these programs; increased exposure to produce increased eagerness in children to try new foods (Guitart et al., 2014). These programs are new; 80% of them were created since 2008. Could these gains be initial shock value? Will these healthy eating habits continue if founding teachers move on from these schools? When studying the Montessori curriculum, development of the whole child is of upmost importance in the quest for exponential gains in development. It is second nature to follow a child’s curiosity outside in this particular curriculum. After analyzing a decade’s worth of public and early childhood gardening programs, in an account of a successful Montessori herb gardening program Remaklus (2014) stated that, The benefits of gardening include learning about life cycles, healthy food and nutrition, stewardship for the earth, reduce stress, and encourage physical activity.as early as 1909, Maria Montessori identified benefits for children tending a garden. She noted that children developed an appreciation of nature, sense of responsibility, patience, and built positive relationship skills”. (p. 18) The more the teachers followed the children in their exploration, the larger the program grew. The children began to transform their wonder into organic dissection of the living world around them. As the program became increasingly child-centered, it thrived (Remakulus, 2014). Another clear Montessori recap of a gardening program was offered by Johnson (2013), who created a school gardening program, an economic GARDENING AND HEALTHY FOOD CHOICES 6 geography curriculum, and a holistic nutrition program. Many adults in that school community had concerns about the time and resources these additions would take. Johnson noticed that the majority of the concerns were, however, from those worried about accidently allowing the garden to die that the children were getting so excited about, due to their lack of gardening experience. She expanded her curriculum to incorporate an edible play yard, nature gardening, and fieldtrips. Because of Montessori’s built-in advantage of allowing children to choose their work, Johnson reported that children became enamored with and craved what they grew out of the garden; in short, they owned it (Johnson, 2014, pp. 36-44). What if school gardens do not hit the mark in educating young children about health and nutrition? Creating one type of specific program may not lend itself to children making healthier food choices. A 2012 publication reported a positive impact of community garden projects in Charleston; positive effects, however, were at the cost of tight regulation and restrictions due to funded support (Busse). Research was also conducted in 2009, in a community of Hispanic farmworkers in the state of Oregon. Organic food education, materials to plant a garden, continued support, and an ending fiesta were given to participating families during a harvest season. A total of 42 families participated in the educational study. The goal of the program was to track any increase in produce consumption, lessening of food anxiety, and strengthening of family dynamics. Reports of physical and mental health benefits were mentioned in exit surveys with an assumed correlation to the families spending time together in the garden, thus strengthening social bonds. Those who marked their produce intake as “several time a day” increased from 18.2 to 84.8 %. Combining answers of “sometimes” and GARDENING AND HEALTHY FOOD CHOICES 7 “frequently” in the level of fear associated with food running out, responses decreased from 31.2 to 3.1% after the gardening season. In post-gardening program surveys, many participants answered the open-ended questions with themes of health and economic benefits for their family. A surprising note was that the reports of skipped meals due to lack of money did not increase or decrease during the study (Carney et al., 2012). After all of the feedback about perceived thoughts and feelings on healthy eating, these results showed that actual skipped meals did not change. Are children’s healthy eating habits due to program excitement? Are children taking these healthy eating habits home, or carrying them on with them the rest of their lives? Perhaps the only behavior educators are going to change is that of school behavior. That seems to be what schools have committed to, behaviorally, change of the child while at school. Perhaps the next step in health and food education is studying ways to teach health that translate to the child’s whole health. In today’s manner of political correctness, it is unpopular to discuss unhealthy children or obesity. If