Garden classroom provides new learning opportunities for local kids

BELOIT—The Merrill Community Sharing Garden, a program of Community Action, Inc. of Rock & Walworth Counties, is using a new tool this summer to teach local youth: an outdoor classroom.

 

The outdoor classroom was made possible with funding from the SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital – Janesville Mini Grant Program, with benches and tables built by youth enrolled in Community Action’s Beloit Fresh Start program.

 

The garden hosts groups of students weekly, with staff from University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension teaching nutrition classes. The lessons are from the Extension’s Growing Healthy Kids curriculum, promoting healthy eating by exposing kids to a variety of fruits and vegetables. In one lesson, the students received bags containing stems, leaves, roots, flowers, seeds and fruits. They then took a tour of the garden, finding the vegetables growing, and taste-testing different foods.

 

Introducing children to fruits and vegetables is an important part of the summer programming in the Merrill Neighborhood, which is located in a food desert. The Merrill Community Sharing Garden is the only option in the neighborhood for fresh produce, and its 1,000 food producing plants offer a free way for low-income residents to access healthful foods.

Youth from the Merrill Community Center, Stateline Boys & Girls Club and Community Kids Learning Center have received lessons in the outdoor classroom from guest educators from University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension.