Nourishing learning environments: School food gardens and sustainable food systems

Abstract

School Food Gardens are experiencing resurgence across North America and Europe. Through a review of the literature, we outline various iterations of school garden movements and present some of their philosophical and theoretical underpinnings. There have been inter-related and overlapping motivations for the establishment of these gardens over the past 120 years. With an understanding of these motivations, we conducted Canada-wide interviews with 18 school garden leaders. Analysis and synthesis of the results confirm that these school gardens use food as a connecting theme to provide community building and engagement, social development, curriculum and learning opportunities, a sense of place and connection to the environment, increased food literacy and health, and an effective link to local food and sustainable agriculture.