Benefit: Child nutrition (accessibility, affordability, desirability) - CWWhitney/nifam_codas_school_garden GitHub Wiki

School gardens can improve child nutrition by increasing accessibility to healthy, fresh foods, making fruits and vegetables more affordable and by improving children's attitudes towards healthy foods. Gardens give children the opportunity to learn, through hands-on experience, where their food comes from, changing their perceptions and giving them a new appreciation for nature and the healthy foods produced in nature (1, 12). This is especially valuable for children in urban communities, who are otherwise relatively disconnected from nature. Children's food preferences and willingness to try new, healthy foods have been found to increase as a result of school garden projects (12, 13). In addition, school gardens have been found to also have an influence on the availability of healthy fruits and vegetables in students' homes (14). When parents positively perceive the school garden and actively support it, they are more likely to not only contribute to the school garden success, but also implement factors like healthy eating and fruit and vegetable availability at home, improving the chances of their child to have good nutrition.

Educating children on the importance of nutrition is much more effective when they are able to actually see, feel and experience where healthy foods come from, through working in a school garden (1) and can result in improved attitudes towards and interest in eating healthy foods. Improved nutrition among children, especially fruit and vegetable consumption are linked to improved health.