Moms: Classrooms move to the garden for lessons on healthy eating

MIAMI — Louisa Torres, who is 7 but soon will be 8, was discussing what NOT to eat. Look at the package label, she said. "If you see hydrogenated oil, don't eat it."

Instead, she said, "Almost every day now, I am eating vegetables and fruits."

She has learned the wisdom of this at her school, Riverside Elementary in downtown Miami, which is encased in concrete and asphalt but nonetheless has a vegetable garden tended by students.

There, two classes of second-graders have planted vegetables and herbs to learn about fresh, healthy foods. Without traditional vegetable beds, their garden is in large containers.

As childhood diabetes, high cholesterol, obesity and other health problems in adolescence have become increasingly troubling, more teachers are using gardening as a tool to teach nutrition and reconnect children with natural cycles, especially in low-income and inner city schools.

Louisa's classmate, Christine Monastirsky, 7, understands the lesson. Her advice: "Don't eat fast food."

Luz Paiva, already 8, has also taken it to heart. "I like lots of fruits, but not as much vegetables," she says.

Riverside is part of a garden project with the ungainly title of Plant a Thousand Gardens Collaborative Nutrition Initiative. The program is run through The Education Fund, a Miami-Dade nonprofit that supports innovations in public schools. In Broward County, Fla., Growing Healthy Kids, run by Holy Cross Hospital's outreach department, is in its third year of financing gardens at parochial schools.

"We're teaching children skills and strategies to carry them through their lives," said Jill Farrell, chairwoman of Barry University's curriculum instruction and one of two Barry professors working with the teachers at 10 Miami-Dade schools. Elementary school teachers spend one Saturday a month at Barry University fashioning their teaching methods and incorporating gardening into their lesson plans.

GERMINATING IDEAS

At a recent workshop for parents and students, teacher Mike Morales walked everyone through planting onion seeds in a container. He reminded kids that the word for what happens when a seed starts to grow is "germination."