Grant Details

The mission of this program is to provide New Jersey elementary schools with financial, educational and agricultural resources to create a school garden that is used as a learning laboratory. Teachers are encouraged to use the school garden to teach their standard curriculum, including math, science, social studies, health, and language arts. Students will have the opportunity to learn how healthy, nutritious food is produced, why it is important to include fruits and vegetables in their diets, and the reasons to care for their environment.

The New Jersey Agricultural Society's Learning Through Gardening program has three main goals.

• ?First, we aim to show children who increasingly have little experience with agriculture where their food comes from and how it is grown.
• Second, we strive to teach children that a healthy diet begins with fresh fruit and vegetables. We have found that children who are given the opportunity to taste fruits and vegetables they have grown at school are more likely to eat them and to ask their parents to serve them at home. 
• Third, we encourage teachers to view their school gardens as outdoor classrooms where they can teach every subject in their core curriculum, including math, science, language arts, social studies, art, and health. We provide our teachers with lesson plans that integrate these subjects with the garden, because we know that teachers are more likely to use the garden when they can teach their everyday lessons there.

Learning Through Gardening grants are awarded for fruit and vegetable gardens only. While other types of gardens such as sensory, pollinator, and native plant gardens have many benefits, the goal of the New Jersey Agricultural society is to show children how food is grown.