Thurgood Marshall Academy and Action for Healthy Kids Team Up for Success
Posted by Kristina Shelton on September 19, 2013
Action for Healthy Kids is well known for awarding school grants to help schools move toward a climate that supports healthy eating, nutrition education, and physical activity. In the spring of 2012, Thurgood Marshall Academy in Washington, D.C. partnered with Action for Healthy Kids by being the recipient of a $2,000 school grant targeting access to healthy foods through food taste testing, nutrition education lessons and food curriculum enhancements. With the help of their School Grant Associate, Noura Hemady, the support staff, and additional grant funding through the General Mills Foundation and the Office of the State Superintendent of Education, Thurgood Marshall Academy created a successful school garden and set the standard for positive, sustainable change within the school system.
In 2007, Thurgood Marshall created and built their first school garden. A few years later, thanks to a grant from the Office of the State Superintendent of Education, the school hired a school garden coordinator to oversee the garden plots, create planting schedules, track seasonal maintenance needs, monitor the irrigation system, and teach students about school garden maintenance. Additionally, the school created a School Garden Team, which included the garden coordinator and three school staff members. The School Garden Team currently serves as a school and community resource by providing valuable information to cultivate a lifelong appreciation for healthful, natural foods and as an effective teaching tool.
Using the Action from Healthy Kids grant, the School Garden Coordinator was also able to lead a series of taste-tests in the lunchroom using produce from the garden. The taste tests exposed Thurgood Marshall students to a variety of produce directly from the school garden and familiarized them with the seasonality of crops. The students also participated in preparing various dishes and serving them to fellow classmates using new portable cooktops, which brought the cooking experience right to the students in the lunchroom. Through taste tests and cooking lessons, the students experienced first-hand how to prepare and cook healthy, delicious that use fresh vegetables and herbs.
Thurgood Marshall has also used best practices and strategies to incorporate the garden into many of their academic subjects. This past spring, a Geometry classes used the garden for a math unit covering the concepts of area, perimeter, and surface area. The students calculated how much compost and mulch was needed to fill the beds and completed conversions from square feet to cubic yards. Using the AFHK grant, students then purchased the calculated amounts of mulch and compost and organized a school-wide garden work day. Activities such as this provided a real-life application of geometry that also promoted academic competency and community service.
Although Thurgood Marshall’s formal, grant-funded partnership with Action for Healthy Kids has ended, the school community has exciting plans to sustain the momentum from last school year. The School Garden Team moved into a room with a full kitchen and has plans to kick off the fall season by making and preserving hot sauce with garden peppers. Thurgood Marshall is also one of the pilot schools for the DC School Farmer’s Market program. Starting September 12th, the student-run farmer’s market will run for ten weeks directly outside of the school and will sell their own garden produce as well as share information about produce and cooking.
