Growing interest in school gardens

Children in a community in Paraguay are learning how to grow and prepare vegetables as part of a project to improve food quality at school and at home.

About 100 families live in the community of Calle San José located in the district of Yatayty del Norte, Department of San Pedro, of which 80 have children sponsored by Plan.

The school garden project has been run successfully in two schools in the community. The head of one of the schools said,"The school garden is important for the children to learn how to grow vegetables for their daily consumption and also for their homes.

"They learn many things in the garden, such as how to prepare foods for sale, so that they can earn their own money."

In both schools, teachers found that the children were interested and involved in all aspects of looking after the gardens and that they learned valuable co-operative skills.

"We like working in the school garden; we weed it, water it and prepare the plot. There we learn and then we can make gardens in our houses," said pupils from the 6th grade class. "We are taught at home and we work here as well; we water the plants and learn what we should grow and when produce will be ready."

Time spent in the garden is divided into theoretical and practical classes. Children work in groups and have fun working, watering, and weeding, and learning more about their gardens.

A special time for them is when they cook and taste food prepared with vegetables they grew themselves, such as spinach omelette and salads.

Schools raise funds to improve their infrastructure through community activities and are supported by parents who volunteer at the school. With help from parents, kitchens have already been built at the schools, and firewood stoves will be installed for the preparation of meals.