By Debbie Stedman, Operations Manager |

This summer, ClackCoKids staff started a Gardening Club funded in part by the Grow More Good Grant from the National Head Start Association. The club members have created a community garden at three of our early learning centers where children, families, staff, and the community can come together to grow and harvest produce.

According to the Clackamas County Community Strengths and Needs Assessment Report, poverty rates are at 8.4%. The report also shows that 32% of households are cost-burdened, and 14% are severely cost-burdened. This means that many families don’t have the funds to purchase healthy foods. Proving a garden gives families and children a place where they can learn how to grow, care for, and harvest their own vegetables. Our hope is families will use these skills to grow their own gardens.

We know there are many ways gardening can be incorporated into the classroom curriculum for our students. The produce from our gardens will be collected when ready to harvest and used in cooking projects in the classroom. Our children tend to the garden, which helps them learn children about where food comes from while building math and science skills.

In addition, gardening exposes children to healthy foods, offers moderate physical activity, and provides opportunities for positive social interactions. Children who grow their own foods are more likely to eat fruits and vegetables than those who do not.

The produce from our gardens is also used to help nourish our kids. The cooks in our central kitchen can use our garden produce to prepare meals for the children. We feed them breakfast, lunch, and a healthy snack each day the kids are at one of our centers.

We also use the produce in our Cooking Matters parenting class. This class is part of an education series offered to the families in our programs. In the class, parents learn how to cook nutritional meals on a budget.