ACHIEVE Coalition Plans to Increase School Gardens

In an effort to get children more interested in eating healthy foods, the ACHIEVE New London County Coalition has begun planning to increase the number of edible school gardens within New London County.

 “The first step is to have a better understanding of the status of school gardens in the county – who’s doing what,” said ACHIEVE Coordinator and Ledge Light Health District Senior Program Coordinator Cindy Barry. “We suspect schools are at various levels of participation in school gardens. Some schools may have gardens that are tied closely to their core curriculum, some that are integrated into the larger community and others that are interested but need support."

The ACHIEVE School Garden Workgroup is a partnership between FRESH New London, Norwich Public Schools, the New London County Food Policy Council, Connecticut Food Corps Service Members, Groton Public Schools, Ledge Light and Uncas Health Districts and the Connecticut College Office of Sustainability.

“What began as a small project to support school gardens in the region became an opportunity for our students to create an academic community-based project,” said Josh Stoffel, Sustainability Officer at Connecticut College. Under his department, students will contact area schools to assess their participation in edible school gardens and create a map of New London County, highlighting various levels of school garden programs.

“School gardens can be powerful learning labs, offering students experiences that deeply impact their understanding of food, health, nature and community,” Barry said. “Garden programs have shown improvements in student test scores, promote physical activity, expose kids to healthy foods and change eating habits, create positive connections to nature and teach skills outlined in Common Core standards.”

Outreach to local schools follows the distribution of a statewide survey by the CT School Garden Network, who will share the results at a conference later this year.

Our intention is to support local school garden efforts by establishing a local school garden network - where resources and best practices can be shared, where funding can be leveraged and where school staff and volunteers can learn. The ACHIEVE New London County Coalition will also be awarding mini grants to eligible schools later this year.  

The ACHIEVE New London County Coalition is part of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Community Transformation Initiative to prevent heart attack and stroke. For more information, contact Cindy Barry at Ledge Light Health District, at 860-448-4882 ext. 302 or cbarry@llhd.org.