Savannah Children's Museum

Program Type: 
Garden Classrooms, Kitchen Classrooms, Support Organization
Grade Level/Age Group: 
Pre-Kindergarten, Lower Elementary, Upper Elementary
Number of Individuals Program Serves: 
10,000
Year Founded: 
2012
About the Program: 

In 2012 Coastal Heritage Society, a 501(c)3 non-profit, established the Savannah Children's Museum.  Among over a dozen hands-on exhibits, Savannah Children's Museum offers a sensory garden exhibit called Frogtown Garden, which is used to provide educational programs centered around nutrition and garden education to children and their families.  Recognizing the need to address child wellness and nutrition in Chatham County, the position of Nutrition and Garden Coordinator was created to implement health and nutrition initiatives into the museum's daily programming.  The position is held by Jesse Rosenblum, a nutrition consultant who earned her cetification at an international institution for holistic wellness in Barcelona, Spain.  By combining her extensive knowledge of nutrition, background in sociology (B.S. Sociology) and education, and passion for wholesome food, she brings six years of experience working with children and education, and three with nutrition and health education to the Savannah Children's Museum.  She is excited to build a team of educators capable of spreading edible education here in the Savannah area!

We believe all children should have access and exposure to fresh produce and wholesome food starting in early childhood regardless of socioeconomic background.  We are committed to spreading education about wholesome food and where it comes from, exposing children's palates to healthy food, providing them with tools to incorporate that food into their diets and foster positive social and civic values around food and mealtimes.

We are currently developing a Mobile Museum which will include both a mobile kitchen and a mobile greenhouse to further our outreach in Chatham County and the surrounding area, where one in three children are overweight.  This problem disproportionately affects low-income, urban populations of color in our community whom lack accessibility to healthy food.  A mobile exhibit will allow us to reach many of these underserved areas including 21 Title 1 schools in the county whose students may otherwise be unable to participate in our garden and kitchen lessons on-site at the museum.  We are hoping to acquire a Charlie Cart, an outfitted mobile kitchen that comes with K-5 curriculum on par with the Common Core standards for math, humanities and English and  New Generation science standards.