OUR GARDEN
We do more than maintain a productive vegetable garden with children, we implement sustainable “edible education” programming that connects the classroom to the food growing outdoors. Our edible school garden enhances the teaching of traditional subjects like math, science, and art, as well as some of life’s larger lessons like environmental stewardship and healthy eating habits. Students foster flexible thinking, creativity, and collaboration while planting, harvesting, preparing snacks from the the garden, or brinings scraps to the compost.
Each week, experienced Garden Educators from The Organic Gardener Ltd, mentor our community as we build knowledge of how plants grow, when to harvest ripe fruits and vegetables, and how our decisions and actions can make a difference. Families volunteer weekly in the garden, and take home fresh produce in the summer. We are thrilled to be a school that is part of the edible education movement developing throughout Chicagoland and the nation.
WHY GARDENS MATTER
Nature
Growing food offers an accessible way to connect with the natural world. The basic lesson that when we take care of the earth, the earth takes care of us is learned hands on. We expose children to the curiosities and wonders of the garden and nurture young minds to be conscious about the world around them.
Focus
Gardening helps over-stimulated and hyperactive kids focus and perform better academically. A 2004 report from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign found that green outdoor settings, including gardens, reduced symptoms of ADHD in the more than four hundred kids in the study – learning to slow down, focus, engage their senses, and strengthen their powers of observation.
Community
Growing food brings people together in the garden and at the table. The tending and harvesting rituals slow us and encourage more home-cooked snacks.
Health and Wellness
Homegrown fruits and vegetables can improve the eating habits of children and help prevent diabetes, obesity, and some cancers. The Journal of the American Dietetic Association found that children more than doubled their overall fruit and vegetable consumption after they grew a food garden in their yard. The joy of physical activity in a natural setting to produce something tangible is not only good for your body but fulfilling to the spirit.
Climate
An organic food garden can have a zero-carbon footprint or even a positive climate impact, due to the absorption of carbon dioxide by its leafy plants. Children can actively make a difference as young environmentalists, growing food for each other at WCNS.
Learn more about our proud partnership with The Organic Gardener and the Edible Schoolyard Project by clicking their logos below.
