The impact of a school garden on fruit and vegetable availability at home for elementary children
The primary purpose of this study was to explore the impact of a school garden on the home availability of FV and on household food security of elementary children. A secondary aim of the study was to examine the impact of both the school garden and parental FV consumption on children’s FV preferences and consumption. Nine third-grade students completed this study. T-tests and ANOVA assessed changes in outcomes before and after the school-garden program. Associations between the school-garden program, parental FV consumption, and children’s FV preferences and consumption were also examined. Results showed that vegetable consumption of parents was significantly associated with vegetable availability at home (p = 0.003) and vegetable consumption of children (p = 0.01) at the end of the school-garden program. Thus, future studies that further explore the impact of parental vegetable consumption on child vegetable consumption in the context of school gardens would be beneficial.
School gardens, Food security, Fruit and vegetable preferences
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