529 new school gardens funded by Whole Kids Foundation

Austin, Texas (April 27, 2017) — The Whole Kids Foundation announced 529 new school garden grant recipients and 93 extended learning garden grant recipients. The recipients cover 50 U.S. states, nine Canadian provinces and the U.S. Virgin Islands, providing educational opportunities around agriculture, ecology, nutrition and business for 437,850 students.

Created in partnership with FoodCorps, the School Garden Grant program provides a $2,000 grant to a K-12 school or nonprofit organization to support an edible garden on school grounds. Whole Kids Foundation’s Extended Learning Garden program provides a $2,000 grant to a nonprofit children’s programming organization, working with children ages K-12, to support an edible educational garden not located at a school. The Extended Learning Garden program allows recipients to incorporate edible education gardens into non-school environments such as children’s hospitals or after-school programs.

“Every garden grant gives students the opportunity to follow their natural curiosity to learn where food comes from, the connection between what we eat and how we feel, and how to make good food choices for life,” says Nona Evans, president and executive director of Whole Kids Foundation. “Educational gardens are key to inspiring our children to have respect for the environment, real food and themselves.”

Gardens are becoming an increasingly common educational tool and for good reason: school gardens are shown to improve children’s behavior and performance at school and improve their attitudes about and appreciate for the environment. Additionally, only two percent of children eat enough fresh fruits and vegetables, but children who grow their own food are more likely to eat fruits and vegetables and to be more knowledgeable about nutrition.

Over the past six years, Whole Kids Foundation has awarded 4,254 gardens, investing nearly $8.5 million and impacting 2,457,084 students.

For more information on the Whole Kids Foundation Garden Grant program, visit http://bit.ly/2aDziI8.