Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Gardening to combat Hunger


I work with school gardens.I love my job. It's amazing. I went visiting a few schools in my state yesterday that won a school garden award in order to get a school garden up and running. I realized something yesterday.
 
I think that most of the time when we think of school gardens ( or just gardens in general really) we think of getting back to nature, learning to be sustainable, the joy of being outdoors, we think that gardening can help us teach kids about photosynthesis and natural resources. I think though one of the most important things about school gardens though, is that at the end of the day, the food that has been grown can be sent home with hungry children.
 


There are still hungry kids in this country, in my state in particular I saw that yesterday as I visited two very poor rural schools. Those principals weren't excited about kids being able to do science fairs, or learning about soil profiles, they mentioned that kids would be able to go to bed with food in their stomach. Hungry kids could learn and possibly teach their families how to grow food that they can use as substinance. It hit me yesterday folks, we have to grow food for hungry people to EAT!!
There are lots of programs out there that already to this, you can grow an extra row and donate to your food pantry, you can participate in gleaning programs that donate to the hungry, food pantries are planting community gardens across the country. It's out there, I just feel burdened to put it MORE out there.
 
So this post was a bit different than most of mine, but I hope you will think about ways to get involved and get food into the mouths of those kids that need it most. Talk about ways to get a garden at your school, see if you can donate produce or fruit to the backpack program at your local school, if they don't have one, see if you can start one.
 
No matter what your political views are, it isn't the child's fault, and we need to realize that we can't educate a child, unless we nourish the WHOLE child, including their health.
 
Happy Homesteading ya'll!

Linked up with Monday Barn Hop

5 comments:

  1. Great message - I won't be growing a a garden but I can certainly do what I can in other others. Thank you for that message. TALU!

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  2. That's a fabulous option for people who garden ... you're already doing it, just add a row for another purpose. One of those duh - why didn't I think of that moments!! [#TALU]

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  3. I only recently moved from NY to AL, but when I was in NY, our little town had a community garden. It was a good thing. You could work in the garden and help out, and everything was free for the taking. You would think that some would abuse this privilege, but it didn't happen like that! It really was a community effort and people that really needed it were able to get it!
    Thanks for sharing at Linky Party Love http://foodtalkdailyrecipes.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_20.html

    I will be sure to link up to your Monday Barn Hop!

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  4. Great post! I like the idea of just adding an extra row. So simple!

    Sorry I’m so late getting over to read your post. Thanks for linking this up with the TALU!

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  5. You are so right. This is a great post. Thanks so much for sharing with Wednesday's Adorned From Above Blog Hop. We can't wait to see what you have for us this week. The party starts at 8:00PM tonight.
    Debi and Charly

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