When children enter child care or preschool for the first time, they learn how to count to ten, sing their ABC’s and recognize colors.
At Head Start, students are still learning those basic principles, but are also getting education in nutrition through the gardening project.
For the past two years, the Knox Community Hospital, Knox County OSU Extension Office and three different Head Start locations have collaborated to create gardens for children to grow and learn about different vegetables and how to maintain plants.
According to SNAP-Ed Program Assistant for Knox County OSU Extension Office, Tanner Cooper-Risser, the project started two years ago as a way to provide virtual nutrition education during Covid-19.
Since then, gardens have been started at the Gambier Child Care Center, Northgate Center and New Hope Early Education Center.
“It has been super cool just to see how similar and different each of the centers have grown and expanded and how involved the students were able to be through the whole process,” Cooper-Risser said.
Cooper-Risser’s job is to teach the students about eating healthy, cooking nutritional meals and overall living a healthy lifestyle. He does this by visiting the students weekly to talk about physical health, plant growth and what the garden needs to prosper, like pulling weeds and watering the soil.
Cooper-Risser believes the garden collaboration project benefits the children physically, mentally and emotionally. Working in the garden incorporates physical activity in the student’s lives daily and the food that is being grown is good for their health.
“[The kids] love getting to hangout with Mr. Tanner. He is really good about explaining gardening to them in a way they understand,” Outdoor Classroom Specialist at the New Hope Early Education Center, Hillary Ramsey said.
Ramsey has been with the Head Start for nine years and has taken on her new role that includes caring for the New Hope garden every day with the children. With the help of Cooper-Risser and Ann Guinsler from Knox Community Hospital, they are able to educate the students about how the food they grow ends up on their tables at home.
In their world, children experience the food they eat being placed in front of them and know it comes from the store. “[Through gardening], they get to learn where their food comes from and try foods they may not taste normally,” Ramsey said.
As the garden collaboration project continues to prosper, Cooper-Risser’s hope is that Head Start will continue to sustain the gardens for years to come so future children can enjoy and learn what it means to grow their own food. Not only does this project impact the children at Head Start, but also the community they live in.
“When we invest in our youth as young as early education, those individuals are going to become our [workforce].” Cooper-Risser said. “The common phrase is kids are our future, but I think kids are our now. If we are not investing in our kids then how can we expect them to be the outstanding adults that we want them to be?”
Eventually, the New Hope Early Education Center would like to have days where community members can come see and tend to the garden, according to Cooper-Risser and Ramsey.
Head Start has already taken that step to try and incorporate the public by distributing the extra fresh vegetables to families who need it. For more information on how to enroll a child at Head Start or about the garden collaboration program, visit their website.
Knox County Head Start receives federal funding for Head Start and Early Head Start services from the Department of Health & Human Services, Administration for Children and Families. Locally, the program benefits from generous funding supports from the Knox County Foundation, and the United Way of Knox County.
