7 LR schools getting greenhouses

Student gardening projects part of anti-obesity campaign

Jaylan Osorio (right), a kindergarten student at Romine Elementary in Little Rock, does pushups with classmates Thursday during a lesson on healthy habits taught by University of Arkansas at Little Rock nursing student Charles Wilbanks.
Jaylan Osorio (right), a kindergarten student at Romine Elementary in Little Rock, does pushups with classmates Thursday during a lesson on healthy habits taught by University of Arkansas at Little Rock nursing student Charles Wilbanks.

Greenhouses will soon be installed at seven Little Rock elementary schools in an expansion of the joint city and school district anti-obesity campaign.

The more than 2,750 students who attend Carver, Booker, Mabelvale, Geyer Springs, Romine, Bale and Franklin elementary schools have participated in the program since its rollout in the 2013-14 school year.

Students in kindergarten through fifth grade are taught about nutrition, gardening and physical activity in a hands-on, interactive setting with the "Grow, Eat, Thrive: Growing Gardens for Health" curriculum.

The curriculum -- which was developed in Denver and partners classroom lessons with hands-on gardening -- is evidenced-based and has proved itself in Little Rock already, city Chief Service Officer Michael Drake said.

"The data we've collected indicates kids are losing weight when they participate and gaining muscle mass. Attitudes in class are more improved. We've seen increases in literacy and math scores compared to kids not in our initiative. It's not an opinion anymore, it's just hard data," Drake said.

Overall body mass index scores for students who participated in the pilot year of the program decreased 25 percent, while their math and literacy scores on benchmark exams increased 25 percent.

Across the entire school district, students' body mass indexes didn't fare so well. Students who were overweight or obese increased from 38.6 percent in the 2012-13 school year to 39.1 percent the past school year.

"It takes a long time to change a culture of unhealthy habits," said district Coordinator of Health Services Margo Bushmiaer. "I hope the great programs the city is implementing will help."

Drake would like to see the curriculum -- part of the city's Love Your School anti-obesity initiative -- at all of the district's 33 elementary schools, but there are funding limitations.

The city used grants and business donations to pay for the first round of the program, which included building gardens and walking trails at the seven participating schools.

A $25,000 award the city won last year from the National League of Cities for its Love Your School initiative will pay for the greenhouses, which will be installed at the schools next month. In all, the greenhouses will cost just under $14,000 and will be installed by volunteers stationed in Little Rock through the national AmeriCorps community service program.

Each of the seven schools are either in or adjacent to a food desert, which the U.S. Department of Agriculture defines as an area without ready access to fresh, healthy and affordable food.

Studies show that when children learn about healthy eating and nutritional information, they retain the knowledge more if they can grow and eat their own food, Drake said.

"The learning becomes more profound and it influences not only healthy choices by the kids, but in the families, too," he said.

Nearly 100 parents who are enrolled in the federal food stamp program took a six-week cooking course last year offered through the initiative. Some of them said they had never cooked anything that wasn't microwaveable because they were never taught how to cook, Drake said.

Vegetables and fruits grown at the campuses that aren't eaten by the children or used in the cooking classes are sold by fifth-graders at weekend farmers markets. The sales aspect is meant to add marketing, business and volunteer skills to the lessons that children get out of the program, and also to deliver fresh food to the communities around the schools.

"The whole idea is that healthy foods and physical activity lead to healthier families and smarter kids. The data says if they are healthy, physically fit and eating right, that they will achieve just as any nonpoverty child would," Drake said.

Still, "there are many things we can't change," Bushmiaer said. "Fruit is more expensive than chips and chocolate. Children can't play outside in dangerous neighborhoods."

This year is the first in which the city has partnered with the University of Arkansas at Little Rock to provide education and nursing students to teach the nutrition classes. Previously, graduate students from the University of Central Arkansas taught the classes.

UALR students go to the elementary campuses once a week.

While the focus of the program is to attack childhood obesity, UALR assistant professor of nursing Cindy Gilbert said it's doing just as much of a service for the college students involved.

"Not only is it giving the students the opportunity to practice the skills they are going to use in their chosen profession, but it also gives them an opportunity to give back to the community via service. As important as anything, it's getting the students involved in our local community," Gilbert said.

Metro on 02/23/2015

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