Omaha Public Schools Secondary Educators: Life's a Garden! Can You Dig It?

We represent a diverse geographic and socioeconomic range across the largest city in Nebraska. We serve a wide variety of students and families from low to high economic status, including free and reduced lunch, ELL, refugee, minority, special education and migrant citizens. We have had the good fortune to partner with local community garden organizations and local businesses but we are seeking to expand our knowledge and skills to better serve our community.

Many of our schools are located in food deserts and in Omaha, we have the particular problem of high levels of lead in our soil in some parts of the city. This provides a unique challenge and educational opportunity to inform and problem solve with families in these areas. Our mission is to provide as many students as possible with the opportunity to explore and learn about growing healthy food in urban settings and understanding our nation’s food system as a whole.

The secondary educators on our team specialize in a variety of disciplines, including classes like biology, environmental science, horticulture, plants and propagation, earth science and physical science. There are a multitude of learning opportunities to engage in the practice of planning, planting and growing edible gardens across these disciplines as well as cross curricular experiences that may include foods classes, social studies and mathematics.

The advantages of a schoolyard garden extend far beyond the benefits of healthy food. Students at risk for behavior problems become more engaged when offered opportunities outdoors in nature, in hands-on experiences. The immersion into a natural environment has been documented as having positive effects on students experiencing high stress or other emotional concerns. Gardening and growing food offers opportunities for authentic project and place based inquiry investigations, which enhances understanding and critical thinking skills.

To date, our programs have been funded by grants and small school budgets. Most of our school yard programs so far are recently established, within the past few years or are being rejuvenated and revived. Gardens are accessible to all secondary grade levels, as well as community members and school volunteers, staff and faculty.

As for estimated time spent by students in the gardens, based on conservative estimates over Burke High School’s first growing season last summer, about 160 individuals invested nearly 400 hours planning, preparing, planting, maintaining and harvesting vegetables from our garden beds. If we multiply that conservative number by the four schools represented by our team, we estimate a minimum of about 640 potentially active participants in the next growing season.

At this point in time, schoolyard gardens are implemented in a few pockets around the district. These gardens have been implemented based on the current skills, knowledge, and interests of a few teachers, but there is great potential for expanding the curriculum and garden spaces with additional training and support for more teachers.