Kitchen Gardens are populating schools around the world at high speed. A sort of revolutionary idea years ago, it has now become a fashionable and normalised initiative in most countries.
Why are school kitchen gardens so amazing? Teachers and psychologists have been researching and documenting their impact for a while now. Developing awareness for the environment, engaging students in their learning, fostering community participation, increasing self-esteem, improving diet,
increasing physical activity … are some of the attributes school kitchen gardens are given.
So yes, there is no doubt that school kitchen gardens are great. Now, what if we took them one step further? What if a kitchen garden would become the entry point for a bigger transformation in the school and the community around it?
Why are school kitchen gardens so amazing? Teachers and psychologists have been researching and documenting their impact for a while now. Developing awareness for the environment, engaging students in their learning, fostering community participation, increasing self-esteem, improving diet,
increasing physical activity … are some of the attributes school kitchen gardens are given.
So yes, there is no doubt that school kitchen gardens are great. Now, what if we took them one step further? What if a kitchen garden would become the entry point for a bigger transformation in the school and the community around it?
Three years ago, when I was studying a postgraduate in Design for Sustainability, two classmates and I came up with an idea: what if the four pillars of holistic sustainability: social, economic, ecological and worldview could be designed into a school kitchen garden project? And, what if that project and that school became the door to sustainability for an entire community?
Trying to respond those crucial questions we came up with a set of guidelines for holistic school kitchen gardens, which you can find here.
Note: If you are mainly interested in how to apply Permaculture design to a holistic kitchen garden project, go straight to the ecological design section of the guidelines.
Trying to respond those crucial questions we came up with a set of guidelines for holistic school kitchen gardens, which you can find here.
Note: If you are mainly interested in how to apply Permaculture design to a holistic kitchen garden project, go straight to the ecological design section of the guidelines.
"Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find resources of strength that will endure as long as life lasts." - Rachel Carson
Marta 31.01.2016
