Wisconsin School Garden Initiative
Cultivating Childhood Health through Gardening at Schools, Childcare Centers and Afterschool Sites
The Wisconsin School Garden Initiative builds off of the success of the Got Dirt? Garden Initiative to employ youth gardening and garden-based education strategies to reduce the rates of overweight and obesity in Wisconsin’s children, ages 2-18. Specifically, the Wisconsin School Garden Initiative aims to:
l Increase the number of sustainable gardens at schools, after-school sites, and regulated group and family childcare centers across Wisconsin
l Increase consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as opportunities for outdoor physical activity, amongst children in Wisconsin
l Contribute to the evidence base that the Comprehensive Farm to School model—which includes school gardens and nutrition education—strengthens the effect on child health outcomes
The Wisconsin School Garden Initiative promotes partnership through the development of a sustainable, statewide youth gardening network between state agencies (DPI, DHS, DATCP), nonprofit agencies, UW-Extension, State Master Gardener Association, and University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty. This project will also focus on creating a bridge between existing statewide farm to school efforts and statewide youth gardening efforts to more effectively support comprehensive farm to school implementation.
The Wisconsin School Garden Initiative will utilize training, resource development and technical assistance to support gardens and garden-based education at schools, child care centers and after-school programs across the state. Resources will include Got Veggies?: A Garden-based Nutrition Education Curriculum and Got Dirt?: A Garden Toolkit for Implementing Youth Gardens.
Funding for this project was provided by the Wisconsin Partnership Program at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health.
