The Traverse Heights Elementary School garden program in Traverse City, Michigan teaches students about the importance of healthy food and healthy eating. Partnerships with FoodCorps and Michigan State University (MSU) Extension make their garden-to-table program a success. The partnership staff work with students in all grades to engage and team them about growing food. Traverse Heights Elementary School has been conducting their gardening program for the past five years and through it they are not only able to teach children about nutrition, agriculture, and food systems, but also math, science, and language arts. Along with the gardening program, the partnerships also like to do taste tests with healthy items such as smoothies. The Policy Specialist at Groundwork Center, Megan McDermott, says that if children plant, care for, and grow their own fruit and vegetables, they are much more likely to eat those fruits and vegetables over students who don’t grow their own.
More from this Michigan Team Nutrition Smarter Lunchroom Moves Success Story Compendium:
- Smarter, Brighter, and More Inviting Salad Bars
- Impact of Smarter Lunchroom Coaches
- Partnerships Create Culture of Health
- Partner to Power Smarter Lunchrooms
- Smarter Lunchroom Moves that Work
- Smarter Lunchroom Student Teams
- Student Input Fuels Participation
Contributor
Nicholas Drzal, RD, MPH, Michigan Department of Education
For more information, contact, Megan McDermott, Policy Specialist at Groundwork Center, Traverse Heights Elementary School, Traverse City, Michigan.