Gardening: How Getting our Hands in the Dirt can Rewire Children’s Brains
Spring is approaching and the kids at City of Dreams are preparing for a new season of gardening! Oakdale Avenue is host to our organization, the kids homes, and the community garden. Thanks to the maintenance and support from our Bay Area volunteers, we are able to feed our neighbors on a regular basis. Our goal: a sustainable garden that provides food to the community on a seasonal basis and the education of health and wellness to our people.
An important factor to our vision is the research on gardening with children, especially due to the demographic we serve. Those living in poverty are more prone to unhealthy eating habits and malnutrition caused by social and economic determinants almost completely out of their control. We understand that poverty strikes hard at every angle and at any attempt to achieve wellness. Capitalism has created a gap between having no money and eating healthy. The reality of living in poverty includes surviving off of heavily processed, cheap food items that can ultimately lead to the development of diseases. More often than not, these families have no choice. Systems of healthcare are also on the docket of inaccessible necessities among those at or below the poverty line. As a result, the contradicting phenomenon of unequal medical treatment to those under higher risk of illness becomes present. The intergenerational cycle of malnutrition is therefore passed down. Evidence from Brown University’s Department of Economics shows that everyone develops long-term eating habits as children. Thus, training the minds and habits of our community towards alternatives is an absolute necessity.
We have developed initiatives to reconstruct the perceptions of food and any unhealthy associations with it. Instead, we educate our kids that with healthy living comes making choices that make sense for their continued wellbeing. Earn2Learn is our seasonal gardening and financial literacy program where kids are educated on the life cycle of plants and in turn receive an allowance as compensation. The goal is to facilitate financial literacy and a meaningful relationship with nature. Earn2Learn has produced lemons, apricots, blueberries, carrots, strawberries, collard greens, and more, all while simultaneously nurturing the wellbeing of our kids. A plus–how can the kids resist trying the veggies they grew themselves? The act introduces science, fine motor development, and responsibility into the lives of our youth, young or older.
One study done by the American Society for Horticultural Science found that kids in gardening programs developed above-average levels of self-understanding, cooperation, patience, and interpersonal skills. The practice of self-regulating emotions comes as a critical component to improving the lives of these children who are more prone to experience emotional, financial, familial, and social hardship. What makes gardening even more compelling to our work is the evidence on youth who come from traumatized settings who have shown to better manage anger and anxiety as a result. Working in the dirt has been proven to reduce cortisol levels–the stress hormone. Reducing anger and stress among children who live in dangerous, trying environments is one of the main motivations behind our programs. Essentially, gardening has the power to shift the chemistry in developing brains.
In the past, we have worked with the Bayview community to provide food baskets and even planter boxes of their own. Many of the families continue to use their planters for close-to-home growing. As our kids and the community better understand the benefits of sustainable gardening, the foundation of our community continues to grow and heal. Reaping the benefits of a seedling you helped grow provides a well-rounded view of the life cycle. Because the process is so simple, we hope that our participants will implement the learning into their own decision making.
The efforts are made possible by garden volunteers who maintain upkeep of the garden when the kids can't. Habitat for Humanity,Forge Global, Lettuce Grow, GayforGood, Kitchell, and Canto are among those who have facilitated our progress as a giving community garden. Prometheus Apartments has been one of Earn2Learn’s sponsors throughout the past year, even extending themselves to participate in our Black History Month event and holiday toy drive. Because of them, we are starting Earn2Learn this week!
Check back in 6 weeks for an update!
Special Shout Out to Our Garden Supporters:
Boyd, Danielle. “How Can Your Garden Reduce Your Stress Levels?” The American Institute of Stress, 1 April 2019, https://www.stress.org/garden-reduce-stress. Accessed 17 March 2022.
“The Impact of Poverty, Food Insecurity, and Poor Nutrition on Health and Well-Being Hunger & Health.” Food Research & Action Center, 6 December 2017, https://frac.org/wp-content/uploads/hunger-health-impact-poverty-food-insecurity-health-well-being.pdf. Accessed 17 March 2022.
Murphy, Kara. “Get Your Hands Dirty! Here are 10 Benefits of Gardening with Kids | Macaroni KID National.” Macaroni Kid, 1 April 2020, https://national.macaronikid.com/articles/584ee953599b572c01fd11a3/get-your-hands-dirty-here-are-10-benefits-of-gardening-with-kids. Accessed 17 March 2022.
Robinson, Carolyn W., and Jayne M. Zajicek. “Growing Minds: The Effects of a One-Year School Garden Program on Six Constructs of Life Skills of Elementary School Children.” American Society for Horticultural Science, vol. 15, no. 3, 2005. ASHS Journals, https://journals.ashs.org/horttech/view/journals/horttech/15/3/article-p453.xml. Accessed 16 March 2022.
Sharkey, Patrick. Neighborhoods and Multi-Generational Effects. Standford Center on Poverty and Inequality, 25 October 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ugiM2F_2BA. Accessed 16 March 2022. Video.
Soga, Massashi, et al. “Gardening is Beneficial for Health: A Meta-Analysis.” Elsevier, 2016. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5153451/. Accessed 16 March 2022.
“Why Food Deserts Aren't the Key Cause of Nutritional Inequality | Cities | US News.” USNews.com, 27 December 2019, https://www.usnews.com/news/cities/articles/2019-12-27/why-food-deserts-arent-the-key-cause-of-nutritional-inequality. Accessed 17 March 2022.