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The Lafayette Parish Master Gardener Association in conjunction with the Lafayette 4-H Program established a school garden initiative during the 2009-2010 school year in an effort to engage youth and improve academic, life skill development and health. There are a limited number of resources that provide the horticulture-based knowledge one needs to create a school garden, especially information that is easily accessible and user friendly to educators without horticulture backgrounds. The garden must be incorporated as part of the school curriculum as an outdoor laboratory teaching anything from science, math, English, history, language arts, physical education just to name a few.
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The objectives of the program are to:  
  • Augment and complement traditional classroom studies in Science, English and Mathematics through hands-on instruction of gardening and the plant life cycle.
  •  Teach the gardening basics of preparing soil, planting seeds, setting plants, caring for and harvesting plants.
  • Cultivate a greater awareness for the environment within all participants.
  • Foster students’ interest in gardening as an enjoyable hobby of a healthy lifestyle.
  • Grow kid’s passion for learning, success and serving their community through a unique gardening education. 
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  The benefits of the program are:
  • Academic, data has indicated that the gardens were used to enhance the student’s academic leaning, it promoted the learning through social and recreational experiences;
  • Health/Nutrition, this is among one of the most important factors in America as well as in Louisiana due to the current increase in obesity.    Research indicates that children have made significant improvements in vegetable preferences due to gardening;
  • Parental/Community Engagement, has been linked to the improvement in grades and attitude of students regardless if it is their parent or guardian becomes more involved or a community leader or mentor volunteering with the garden;
  • Teambuilding/Decision Making Skills, has helped teach students the benefits of working together as a group to achieve a common goal and how cooperation can lead to the development of critical thinking and problem solving;
  • Green Space, push for “green spaces” has been a re-occurring issue in the United States since World War I.  This is extremely important especially in the suburban and urban cities across America.


Through the school year, students participate in the entire development of the garden as well as a service component. They are part of the decision making process as it relates to   basic gardening, preparing the soil, choosing crops, planting seeds, weeding and harvesting. The harvest has been used for healthy food demonstrations and sent home for participant families. Youth are taught lessons in the area of improving nutritional choices, exercise and increase their awareness.
  
Each of the participating schools has an advisory group that meets monthly comprised of six to eight youth representatives from the classes or grade level(s), teachers and master gardeners. This group allows youth to share their experiences with the master gardeners as adult mentors. The master gardeners play a significant role of providing a positive relationship with a careering, competent and committed adult.  

October 2013 School Garden Initiative Newsletter

November 2013 School Garden Initiative Newsletter

December 2013 School Garden Initiative Newsletter


School Garden Initiative - Private