The Charleston Area Children's Garden Project @ Youth Learning Institute, Clemson University

The Charleston Area Children's Garden Project (CACGP) guides and assists five Title 1 schools per year in the development of edible gardens as a performance & standards based school & community support, consisting of several hundred youth grades two through six. This is implemented through volunteer support and teacher/CACGP collaboration from construction to harvest with the purpose of promoting physically active and healthy lifestyles aiding in the prevention of chronic illness in children. Through hands-on interaction, the CACGP teaches the growing & preparation of 'real' food and the science behind it in order to foster and set in place lifelong, healthy eating patterns and reduce the risk of health-related diseases. The CACGP’s purpose for nutrition education is to encourage young people to adopt eating behaviors that promote good health. Our purpose for promoting increased physical activity is to decrease the degree to which youth in our community are overweight and therefore at risk for obesity and diabetes, and to raise the level of self-esteem and self-concept, as well as lower the levels of anxiety and stress. Garden, science,math, social studies/culture, and nutrition education sessions take place for 90 minutes each week, alternating through each class of the designated grade for six semesters. At the end of the third year, schools have acquired the skills, methods, & model to sustain the garden as an environmental classroom, and the CAGGP works as consultant & support for an additional year. The Charleston Area Children's Garden Project has been in operation as a non-profit since 2004 and is the largest operation of its kind in the Southeast US.