Building the next 13 school gardens in the Austin area will be a snap for TX Sprouts, thanks to a Whole Kids Foundation donation of almost $60,000.
The TX Sprouts program, developed by Assistant Professor Jaimie Davis, researches the effect of school gardens on children attending low income, minority elementary schools. With this program, a number of elementary schools across the Austin area will have a one-year garden and nutrition education intervention that also measures children for changes in obesity markers, food consumption, exercise, and school performance.
"The money from the Whole Kids Foundation will support building and maintenance for new outdoor educational gardens and classrooms," says Katie Nikah, Senior Research Program coordinator for TX Sprouts. "We will need an extra educator to support the program, which our NIH grant funds will cover."
Full-time professional educators facilitate an important part of the interventions: at each school, there are weekly classes in gardening, nutrition and cooking for the children as well as monthly classes for parents.
