The Issue
- Eating
fruits and vegetables is a lifelong healthy habit that can help prevent obesity
and can protect against a number of chronic diseases, including certain
cancers, stroke, and heart disease. Yet data from the 2007 Youth Risk Behavior
Survey show that 78 percent of youth in Florida consume less than the minimum
recommendation of five fruits and vegetables a day.
In
addition, data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System show that
74.5 percent of adults in Leon County consume less than the minimum
recommendation of five fruits and vegetables a day (BRFSS, 2002). This same
measure, grouped by income, shows that in Leon County 75 percent of those
adults with income less than $25,000; 76.9 percent of those adults with income
$25,000 - $50,000; and 67.9 percent of those adults with income over $50,000
are adults who consume less than five fruits and vegetables a day.
A factor that compounds this
problem is that low-income neighborhoods have been shown to have poor access to
healthy foods, particularly fruits and vegetables. In a 2004 report by the
Economic Research Service,
Low-Income Households’Expenditures on Fruits and Vegetables, low-income
households spent significantly less on fruits and vegetables than higher income
households. In any given week, approximately 19 percent of all low income
households did not buy any fruits or vegetables, as compared with only about 10
percent of higher income households that did not buy any produce. On average,
low-income households spent $3.59 per capita per week on fruits and vegetables
in 2000 while higher income households spent $5.02—a statistically significant
difference. Sadly, people living in low-income neighborhoods have little access
to healthy foods, such as fruits and vegetables.
Projects in Leon County
Establishing school and community gardens represents an
environmental change that can help increase access to affordable, healthy foods
in a community.
Three school and community gardens have been established in Leon County
with the assistance of the Leon County Health Department, and additional
schools and neighborhoods are starting their own.
These
gardens are evidence that “Community gardens and urban agriculture (commercial
farming in urban areas) are land use planning strategies for improving
neighborhood food access and providing increased opportunities for physical
activity. They provide a healthy source of produce for residents and reinforce
the practice of behaviors such as eating healthily, gardening, and walking. An
additional benefit is that community gardens beautify the neighborhood and
provide an environment where people are more likely to enjoy spending time.”
(Source: Prevention Institute,
Strategies for Enhancing the Built Environment to Support Healthy Eating and
Active Living)
In
addition, school gardens provide an outdoor classroom to teach children about
the connection between the foods that they eat and where that food comes from.
Exposing students to fresh produce grown in gardens presents a unique
opportunity to meet children’s immediate nutritional needs by introducing them
to a range of fruits and vegetables; this can help get students excited about
growing and eating food and cultivate lifelong healthy habits. Moreover school
gardens not only provide an opportunity for an experiential learning experience
regarding the food system (the entire process food goes through from farm to
plate), but also create a unique opportunity to integrate other academic
subjects. By linking garden-based education to academic curriculum, school
gardens can serve as a unique learning environment that supports achievement in
academic areas such as science, math, reading, and writing.
The
USDA’s Urban Gardening program estimates that a $1 investment in food growing
projects yields $6 of produce. Using this guideline and calculating the costs
based on materials, in-kind donations and volunteer time (but not staff time),
these three projects in Leon County have yielded $130,050 in fruits and
vegetables for these three communities.
Other
studies have established the value and impact school and community gardens can
have in low-income neighborhoods. These studies show that school and community
gardens can help begin to address the lack of access to fresh produce, making
gardens a critical piece of a community’s food security. One study estimates a
community garden can add $500 to $1200 worth of produce per year to a family’s
diet – a critical difference for a low-income family. Studies also show
improved attitudes toward eating fruits and vegetables as well as increasing
the amount of fruits and vegetables eaten.
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