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School & Community Gardens
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School & Community Gardens can be a big part of nutrition and environmental education and promotion. The Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN has described school gardens as follows:
"School Gardens are found in many countries, in different forms and sizes, with varying aims. In most cases, the School Garden is an area of land within the school grounds or nearby. Vegetables, flowers, medicinal plants, trees, bushes and many other plants are usually grown. Occasionally, small animals are also kept in the in the garden such as ducks, rabbits, chickens, goats and even fish. In cities where schools have limited space or lack open earth, the School Garden can consist of plants growing in containers.Although the term "School Garden" embraces a variety of gardening and agricultural elements, School Gardens usually have two things in common:
  1. The school children actively help parents and other interested community member in creating and maintaining the garden;
  2. These schoolchildren use the garden - for learning, for recreation and by eating what is harvested."                                                                                                
Community-based gardens near the school can be operated by students in cooperation with senior citizens groups, community and environmental organizations and others.Funding requirements are minimal and often come from farming organizations, municipalities or voluntary organizations. The benefits of school garden programs include gains in science knowledge, environmental attitudes, social & dietary behaviours. Garden projects fit easily with primary school interdisciplinary learning activities as well as science, health and environmental studies in secondary schools.They can be part of multi-intervention programs (MIPs) on school food & nutrition such as the FAO School Food & Nutrition program or the WHO Nutrition-Friendly Schools initiative. These MIPs are usually part of multi-component approaches such as healthy schools, community schools and green schools. A 2016-17 survey conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO) found that about one-third of the 163 responding countries listed school gardens as one of their policy actions. Policy and program guidance from several UN agencies recommend school gardens as part of a multi-intervention  program on school food & nutrition. 
Sources: This Glossary Term (GT) was posted as an excerpt from a credible source on 21 December 2020. The following individuals and organizations have contributed to this topic. Comments are welcome. Please post comments about this summary below or on the landing page/mini-blog fopr this section for this section.
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Draft List of Key Research, Reports & Resources (In progress)
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(The number of summaries completed or drafted in this section are listed below)
  • Overview
  • SFN Multi-Intervention Programs
  • SFN Policies
  • SFN Education
    - Curriculum/   
      Instruction
  • SFN Extended Education
            - School Gardens
            - Food Waste
  • Psych-Social Support for SFN
  • Food Services & Procurement
             - Home Grown
               School Feeding
             - Farm to School
  • Physical Environment & Resources