School Garden Program at John Hope Settlement House ` For more information, Please see websites below: ` Organic Edible Schoolyards & Gardening with Children http://scribd.com/doc/239851214 ` Double Food Production from your School Garden with Organic Tech http://scribd.com/doc/239851079 ` Free School Gardening Art Posters http://scribd.com/doc/239851159` ` Companion Planting Increases Food Production from School Gardens http://scribd.com/doc/239851159 ` Healthy Foods Dramatically Improves Student Academic Success http://scribd.com/doc/239851348 ` City Chickens for your Organic School Garden http://scribd.com/doc/239850440 ` Simple Square Foot Gardening for Schools - Teacher Guide http://scribd.com/doc/239851110

1. Timeline
Daniel Blaustein-Rejto
Center for Environmental Studies, Brown University
“Cultivating Hope”: Evaluating Capacity in a Collaborative
School Garden Program at John Hope Settlement House
Conclusions
At this juncture, it is critical to define the long term goals and
plans for Cultivating Hope. Efforts to do so should take into
account the teachers’ collective goals and values, as well as
the contextual opportunities and barriers defined here.
Considering that significant barriers were associated with the
collaborative relationship with Brown, Cultivating Hope and
similar programs need to carefully balance assistance from
partner institutions with reliance on them. Seeking a diversity of
funding sources to pay a manager while still engaging stident
volunteers is one recommended strategy for doing this.
Context
Established in 2011, Cultivating Hope is an edible school
garden program that has been collaboratively conceived,
planned, implemented and managed by John Hope
Settlement House (JHSH) and Brown University students.
JHSH is a multi-service, non-profit community center located
in a low-income and ethnically diverse neighborhood of
Providence, RI. The center is located approximately 1.5 miles
from Brown’s campus and is adjacent to a USDA “food
desert”. Cultivating Hope largely works with the center’s Jo-
Ann McDowell Early Learning Center (ELC), which provides
childcare, preschool, and kindergarten education.
Introduction
Many educational edible school garden programs have recently
been founded with goals ranging from providing experiential
environmental education to improving student nutrition to
increasing food access (Ozer, 2007; Allen, 2006; Desmond et
al., 2004) . Many are predicated on the realization of certain
benefits for students, some of which have been quantitatively
documented by researchers. However, the rationale and
efficacy of these programs vary. The context in which such a
program operates shapes its goals as well as its capacity to
achieve them.
Acknowledgments
Much gratitude to my thesis advisor, Kathryn De Master, to my second
reader ,Jennifer Lindsay; to Lily Matthews, The Center for Environmental Studies,
The Swearer Center for Public Service at Brown University, John Hope Settlement
House and the Early Learning Center teachers for their enduring guidance and
support.
Research Focus
I aimed to discover and describe the opportunities and
barriers that shape the efficacy of Cultivating Hope. Since the
program currently lacks official goals, I sought to uncover the
collective implicit goals and values of the ELC teachers
regarding the program. I then questioned how the program’s
physical, institutional, financial and demographic context
influenced the efficacy of the program in achieving these
goals. Given that the Swearer Center, the program’s current
sponsor, has a focus on participatory community engagement,
I also researched the degree to which decision-making within
Cultivating Hope included the participation of ELC teachers,
students and families, as well as Brown students.
In general I practiced Participatory Action Research, observing,
participating in, reflecting on and enacting change within
Cultivating Hope. Specifically, I engaged in participant observation
for eight months. During the spring of 2011, I helped with the initial
planning and construction of the school garden. That summer and
autumn, I managed the garden and led garden activities with
different classes. During my involvement, I kept a research
notebook to record quotes, events and other observations. I also
conducted semi-structured topical interviews with seven ELC
faculty and staff members in the autumn, approximately five
months after implementation of Cultivating Hope began. This
mixed methods approach sought neither “distance nor immersion,
but dialogue” to generate understanding (Burawoy, 1989: 4). The
overarching themes from my field notes and interviews clarified the
collective goals of the teachers, as well as the opportunities and
barriers to achieving these goals, and may inform future action
within the program.
Methods
Results
RationaleContextEfficacy
Other Gardens’ Goals ELC Teachers’ Goals
• Changes in student
nutrition and weight
• Psychological and
developmental benefits
of exposure to outdoors
nature
• Improved academic
performance
• Attracting new families
• Family involvement:
Parents should “see just
what their child is doing”
• Gardening and
biology education
OpportunitiesBarriers
• Geographic: Central, community-
oriented location
• Financial: External funding
• Organizational: Brown garden
managers
• Organizational: Brown student
volunteer services
• Institutional: Some ELC teacher
engagement with Brown student
initiatives
• Demographic: Families’ lack of time
and money for involvement
• Financial: No long-term funding
• Geographic and organizational:
Lack of Brown students’
familiarity with Cultivating Hope
• Institutional: Poor classroom
coordination
• No parent or family participation
• Lack of preschool involvement
• Several irregularly scheduled
garden-based lessons
• Low level of ELC children’s
participation in decision-making
• Mix of parent curiosity and suspicion
• The “kids are crazy about it”
• Mixed teacher satisfaction with
opportunities to participate
• Garden produce eaten in lunch and
brought home
Moving Forward
1. Collaboratively
institutionalize goals
and values
2. Collaboratively create a
multi-year site plan
embodying the goals
and values
3. Create an equitable
garden activities schedule
for the ELC
4. Teach the teachers
necessary gardening
knowledge and skills
5. Solicit greater support from
ELC families; neighboring
residences, non-profits and
businesses; and the JHSH
administration
6. Pursue grants to
decrease financial
dependence on Brown
and diversify the
sources of support
7. Employ a part-time
program manager or
pay a current teacher to
cover that responsibility
8. Purchase or create more
compost, most likely
through vermicomposting
9. Beautify, expand and
diversify plantings
10. Solicit and incorporate
ELC student input into
planting choices and
layouts
Spring, 2011
Spring, 2012
Further Research
Additional evaluation of Cultivating Hope could survey the ELC
and Brown students involved about how they value the
program. It could also explore the impacts of increased
participation in planning by ELC students and teachers.
Shared
• Increased
opportunities for
exposure to outdoors
nature
• Integrating lessons
with the garden
• Increased access to
fresh vegetables
• Novel opportunities to
taste vegetables
Brown students installing garden beds
ELC students and me planting seeds
Picking basil for pesto over the summer
Preparing salad with the summer harvest
Brown and ELC students plant garlic in fall
ELC students show Brown students their
vermicomposting bin
Documented Benefits of Programs
An increasing number of studies indicate that children’s
exposure to outdoors nature can improve their physical and
mental health and yet the amount of this exposure is
decreasing nationwide (Louv, 2008; Kuo et al., 2006). Edible
school garden programs create opportunities for this exposure
and also provide students with free fresh vegetables, thereby
improving fresh produce availability (Zenk et al., 2011).
Depending on the context, they can change students’ food
consumption patterns (Habib, 2007; Morris & Zidenberg-Cherr,
2002) and also contribute to greater academic achievement
(Lieberman, 1998).
Works Cited:
Allen, Patricia and Julie Guthman (2006) “From ‘old school’ to ‘farm-to-school’: Neoliberalization from the ground up” Agriculture and Human Values
23 (4)
Burawoy, M (1991) Ethnography Unbound: Power and Resistance in the Modern Metropolis. California: University of California Press
Desmond, D., Grieshop, J., & Subramanium, A. (2004). Revisiting garden based learning in basic education. Rome: Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations.
Habib, Deb and Kaitlin Doherty (2007), “Beyond the Garden: Impacts of a School Garden Program on 3rd and 4th Graders” Seeds of Solidarity.
Accessed November 16, 2011 http://www.seedsofsolidarity.org/Beyond_the_Garden.pdf
Kuo, F.E. and A. Taylor, “Is contact with nature important for healthy child development? State of the evidence” C. Spencer., M. Blades (Eds.), Children
and their environments: Learning, using and designing spaces, Cambridge University Press, New York, 2006.
Lieberman, Gerald and Linda Hood, (1998) “Closing the Achievement Gap: Using the Environment as an Integrating Context for Learning,” Executive
Summary: State Education and Environment Roundtable. San Diego, CA.
Louv, Richard. The Last Child in the Woods. Algonquin Books, 2008.
Morris, Jennifer L, Sheri Zidenberg-Cherr, (2002) “Garden-enhanced nutrition curriculum improves fourth-grade school children's knowledge of
nutrition and preferences for some vegetables”, Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 102(1): 91-93,
Ozer, Emily J. (2007) “The effects of school gardens on students and schools: Conceptualization and considerations for maximizing healthy
development” Health Education & Behavior. 34(846)
Zenk, S. N., A. M. Odoms-Young, et al. (2011). ""You have to hunt for the fruits, the vegetables": environmental barriers and adaptive strategies to
acquire food in a low-income African American neighborhood." Health Educ Behav 38(3): 282-292.
• “Kept our food cost down.”