Cultivating Food Security in Nova Scotia Public Schools: A Case Study of an Elementary School Garden Project
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Date
2011-01-19
Authors
Carlsson, Liesel
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Abstract
Background: Community food security (CFS) exists when all community residents
obtain a safe, personally acceptable, nutritious diet through a sustainable food system that
maximizes healthy choices, community self-reliance and equal access for all. A small but
growing body of peer reviewed research suggests that school gardens provide an array of
nutrition, health, social, and ecological benefits. School gardens have been promoted as
a strategy for building CFS, but to date no research is available exploring school gardens’
role in CFS.
Purpose: This thesis explored the role of school gardens in building CFS. More
specifically, it surveyed, from the perspective of the school community and affiliated
public health practitioners: 1) any health, social and ecological effects of the school food
garden at River Valley Elementary School, and 2) what factors contributed to producing
these effects.
Methods: A qualitative, exploratory, single case study design was followed, using an
elementary school food garden as the case. Data collection consisted of focus group and
individual interviews, document review and participant observation in classroom and
extracurricular garden activities. Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological System’s Theory and
Garret and Feenstra’s Model for Sustainable Food Systems were used as frameworks to
inform data analysis.
Results and Conclusions: While the school garden at River Valley Elementary School
did have some direct effects on human and environmental health, it was the indirect
effects that were most important for their potential contributions to longer term CFS. The
school food garden at River Valley Elementary has the potential to influence long term
CFS through developing in children knowledge, skills and values that encourage
participation in sustainable food systems. A societal culture supportive of healthy,
sustainable food at schools, backed by relevant government and school policies, were key
ecological systems factors reinforcing and supporting this garden’s effects on human and
environmental health, and economic vitality. If all schools are to have access to building
and maintaining a sustainable a school garden, these findings suggest that adequate
funding for a paid school garden coordinator and the support of a team of committed
volunteers is essential. Furthermore, the social, health and ecological effects of school
food garden at River Valley and their relationship to each other was complex. More
research is needed to extricate if and how the observed immediate effects contribute to
the indirect, CFS building potential of school gardens suggested in this thesis, and further
explicate what factors at the micro-, meso-, exo-, macro-, and chronosystem levels
contribute to this.
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Keywords
Community food security , School gardens , Food security , Food sustainability