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March 22, 1999
Not sure how many portions of fruit and vegetables you should be eating each day or what the best sources of vitamin B are? You may not know, but there are plenty of experts at the Children's Center and School Age Program at Family Student Housing.
These three- to twelve-year-olds can not only tell you about your nutritional needs, they can show you how to grow many of the foods you should be eating.
The children have been learning a lot about gardening and nutrition lately, thanks to two grants from the California Department of Education's Garden-Enhanced Nutrition Education Project. Each of the UCSC programs received a $1,000 grant from the project and were the only Santa Cruz County child care programs to receive the statewide grants.
"The grants have sparked all kinds of wonderful activities," said Michele Mosher, program coordinator for Child Care Services. "The children are planting seeds, grinding grains, and cooking things like vegetable soup. And, what's really exciting to see is that they're making the connection between what they eat and where it comes from, realizing that it doesn't just appear on a grocery store shelf wrapped in plastic."
The sixty-some children are not the only ones getting training in gardening and nutrition. The first step of the grant program was a training last month in which the Children's Center and School Age Program staff learned gardening and nutrition curriculum from a state specialist and staff from Life Lab, a campus-based affiliate that brings gardening programs to area schools.
Special guests have also visited the children in their classrooms. Over the past few weeks, the kids met with John Fisher, the outreach coordinator for UCSC's Center for Agroecology, and Rich Berger, head groundskeeper at Family Student Housing. Fisher talked to the kids about seeds, to spark their interest in gardening, and about grains, to help them understand the food pyramid. Berger demonstrated the correct use of tools, which the children then used in the garden.
The children have also visited the garden at College Eight and eaten in the College Eight Dining Hall. To complete the experience, they were given a behind-the-scenes tour of the dining hall.
Along with training, the grant provides funds that, Mosher said, will be used to buy gardening tools, nutrition education materials, and cooking supplies.
"We are thrilled to receive this grant," said Lise Bixler, director of UCSC's Child Care Services. "There is such a strong link between good nutrition and successful learning in the primary and secondary grades. The grants will make it possible for us to meet our goals educating children and families to make healthy nutritional choices using gardens and community resources."
For more information, or to participate in the program, call (831) 459-2967.