SCHOOL GARDENS

  In no way can nutrition be taught better to children in the elementary grades, and in the high schools, than by making it possible for them to produce food for the school lunch. The planning of a school garden on the basis of the nutritional needs of the children who will eat the garden's produce gives an extraordinarily splendid opportunity for teaching practical nutrition.
  A bulletin entitled Nutrition Education in the Elementary School, published by the Federal Security Agency, United States Office of Education, United States Department of Agriculture, Food Distribution Administration, lists the following types of nutrition education as particularly valuable for children in the elementary grades.

Keeping One's Growth Record
Learning the Signs of Good Nutrition
Checking One's Food Intake Against a Daily Food    Guide
Conducting an Animal-Feeding Experiment
Feeding Pets and Farm Animals
Experimenting to Learn the Composition of Foods
Meal Planning
Preparing Foods
Buying Foods
Selling Foods
Producing Foods
Participating in the School Lunch
Working with Parents in Nutrition Education

  A quotation from this publication shows the advantages of school gardening:
  "Production of food is another type of experience which lends itself to nutrition education in the elementary grades. It usually takes the form of planning and caring for a school garden. The immediate object of having the garden may be to grow food for the school lunch. Another object generally is to interest pupils in the possibilities of growing part of the family's food supply and in assisting in caring for a home garden. Besides the actual care and cultivation of the plants, the garden may motivate a study of the comparative food values of different vegetables and fruits and afford opportunity to learn of the desirability of using most garden products immediately after they are harvested, of ways of storing and preserving garden products, and of the value of year-round gardening in localities where that is possible. School gardening may also help develop a favorable attitude toward the eating of vegetables.
  "Occasionally it is possible for an elementary school to provide pupils with an opportunity to take part in caring for laying hens, rabbits, pigeons, a milk goat, or a cow. Such experiences could be expected, under favorable conditions, to result in increased interest in eating the products. Also, they may lead the families of pupils to produce more of their own food supply. A special effort to provide experiences in producing food at school is needed during wartime, because it is important to use every channel for stimulating home-grown food production."
  The following outline gives a suggested school Victory Garden project, particularly designed for the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth grades. A similar project could well be designed for the three upper high school grades.
  In the diagram on page 65, the child is requested to indicate the amount of each of the major vegetables which he has planted.