Cornell Cooperative Extension Community Horticulture

These research articles note that according to their study:

Having a garden can decrease the likelihood of hunger among households.

They go on to state that:

This may indicate the important role of gardening in maintaining food security and underscore the need for educational programming related to both gardening and safe preservation methods. Initiating community or school gardens may be one strategy not only to teach gardening methods and improve food security, but also to improve dietary quality and promote health.

Food Security Status of Households in Appalachian Ohio with Children in Head Start
DAVID H. HOLBEN, PhD, RD; MEGAN C. MCCLINCY, RD; JOHN P. HOLCOMB, JR, PhD; KELLY L. DEAN, RD; CAITLYN E. WALKER, RD

Journal of the American Dietetic Association, Volume 104, Page 238-241

The Food Security Status of Ohio Food Pantry Users and Its Relationship to Household Characteristics
Journal of the American Dietetic Association, Volume 105, Issue 8, Supplement 1, August 2005, Page 14
K.E. O’Connell, D.H. Holben

I can’t post the whole article but CCE educators can contact Lori if you want a copy.

This article from Hort Technology January - March 2008 reveals that in MN gardeners most often obtain their garden or plant related information from friends and neighbors.

…what this says to me is that our county community horticulture educators and volunteers are absolutely critical to our role in getting Cornell research based information to NYS citizen. The number of NYS citizens who view you as friends and neighbors far excessed anything Cornell University could gather.

Keep up the good friends/neighbor work. You are the faces of our successful CCE educational system.

Lori

Here’s the full research article and please share your perspectives with a comment.

article.pdf

ScienceDaily (Apr. 19, 2007) If you are looking for a way to encourage your children eat their fruits and vegetables, search no further than your backyard, suggests new Saint Louis University research.

Preschool children in rural areas eat more fruits and vegetables when the produce is homegrown.

“It was a simple, clear finding,” said Debra Haire-Joshu, Ph.D., director of Saint Louis University’s Obesity Prevention Center and a study author. “Whether a food is homegrown makes a difference. Garden produce creates what we call a ‘positive food environment.’”

Researchers interviewed about 1,600 parents of preschool-aged children who live in rural southeast Missouri. They found that preschool children who were almost always served homegrown fruits and vegetables were more than twice as likely to eat five servings a day than those who rarely or never ate homegrown produce.

The American Dietetic Association recommends between five and 13 servings of fruits and vegetables a day.

In addition, children who grow up eating fresh-from-the-garden produce also prefer the taste of fruits and vegetables to other foods, the parents told researchers.

The study, in the April issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, found the garden-fed children were more likely to see their parents eating fruits and vegetables.

A greater variety of fruits and vegetables — more tomatoes, cantaloupe,broccoli, beans and carrots — also were available in the homes of families who nearly always had homegrown produce.

The implications of the research are important because they point to a simple way of getting kids to eat healthier, Haire-Joshu said. Plant a garden or encourage your school to do so.

“When children are involved with growing and cooking food, it improves their diet,” Haire-Joshu said. “Students at schools with gardens learn about math and science and they also eat more fruits and vegetables. Kids eat healthier and they know more about eating healthy. It’s a winning and low-cost strategy to improve the nutrition of our children at a time when the pediatric obesity is an epidemic problem.”

Adapted from materials provided by Saint Louis University.

Want to get started growing vegetables? Check out what working well for other vegetable gardeners at Cornell’s Vegetable Varieties for Gardeners

The 4-H Youth in Governance Executive Summary and national report: Youth-Adult Partnerships in Community Decision Making: What Does it Take to Engage Adults in the Practice, authored by Shepherd Zeldin, Julie Petrokubi (University of Wisconsin-Madison) and Carol McNeil (University of California-Davis) are available for download at the following National 4-H Council website: http://www.fourhcouncil.edu/YouthInGovernanceProgram.aspx .
The report outlines a strategic, yet practical, framework for promoting Youth-Adult Partnership in settings such as organizational boards, community coalitions and local government. Grounded in two years of research with 4-H Youth Development in multiple states, this report describes “best practices” for how 4-H staff can effectively support volunteer and community leaders as they engage in youth-adult partnerships. The report includes examples of approaches and best practices from the perspectives of youth development professionals, adult community leaders and young people. A brief overview of the theory and research on youth participation is also included to assist professionals in “making a strong case” for Youth-Adult Partnership. This report raises issues that may be useful in planning the promotion and implementation of other types of innovative youth development practices.

This site provides some facts and figures on the benefits on plants from economic, health and psycho-social and environmental perspectives. This material serves as excellent background information for our continual efforts to use garden as a tool for success.

http://www.floridagardening.org/benefit.asp

The Garden Writers Association Foundation (GWAF) is pleased to announce the release of the 2007 Fall Gardening Trends Research Report with some very interesting insights on consumer gardening attitudes and expectations for the current gardening season.

In a measure of what consumers know about the fall gardening season, this year’s survey asked what activities homeowners believed were “appropriate” for the season. The survey offered choices for activities that were, and were not, generally recommended for the fall season.

Forty-four percent indicated pruning trees & shrubs was appropriate and 25% would plant trees or shrubs in the fall. One in three households (33%) said seeding lawns is appropriate in the fall and almost the same number (30%) indicated fall was a good time to plant bulbs.

Almost 1 in 3 households responded fall is a good time to fertilize annual and perennial flowers and 15% chose sowing flower seeds as a fall activity. Almost one in three households (29%) also reported they believed gardening should stop at first frost.

Other findings of the fall gardening trends survey include:

1. Households that plan to make fall plant purchases primarily with the spring season in mind grew by a whopping 10% from 35% in 2006 to 45% in 2007.

2. Mulching yard waste remains the top choice of consumers. The number of households planning to mulch their fall garden wastes with a mower increased slightly from 28% in 2006 to 31% in 2007.

3. Composting wastes also gained slightly. Households planning to compost their fall garden waste rose from 17% in 2006 to 21% in 2007.

4. The number of households planning to do indoor gardening has now risen to 57% representing 46.3 million households.

5. The top two reasons for indoor gardening are decoration (47%) and emotional enjoyment (43%).

6. Lack of time has been the traditional major obstacle to indoor gardening. This year “No Time” declined from 30% in 2006 to 25% in 2007, making it the #3 obstacle to indoor gardening. Limited space (last year’s #3 obstacle) is the major indoor gardening obstacle for 2007.

For more details, get your copy of the 2007 Fall Gardening Trends Research Report today. The fall gardening survey was conducted in August and covers consumer expectations and attitudes for activities and purchases planned for the next few months. The survey was conducted by TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence, a national consumer polling organization, and statistically represents the attitudes of 110 million households with an accuracy of 95% (+/- 3.1 percentage points).

The 2007 Fall Gardening Trends Research Report is the final national consumer survey planned by the GWA Foundation for 2007. It is now available online FREE TO ALL GWA MEMBERS. Simply visit the Garden Writers Association website at www.gardenwriters.org and select the Gardening Trends Research tab. Choose 2007 reports and follow the online instructions. For further information, contact the GWA at 703.257.1032 or info@gardenwriters.org.

The Garden Writers Association Foundation (GWAF) is pleased to announce the release of the 2007 Summer Gardening Trends Research Report with some very interesting insights on consumer gardening attitudes and expectations for the current gardening season.

In early spring, the GWAF asked consumers where they planned to buy most of their spring plants. In a surprising response, more households indicated they planned to shop at garden centers and local stores (47%) as compared to DIY and mass merchants (44%). This change in planned shopping patterns represented a significant shift from prior years.

In a June survey, The GWAF asked consumers where they actually purchased most of their spring plants. Consumers confirmed that garden centers or local gardening stores got most (43%) of their business while mass merchants and DIY stores came in second (39%).

Other findings of the summer gardening trends survey include:

• The most popular method of insect control that American households plan on using this summer is a combination of organic and chemical products (28%). About one-fourth of households plan on using only organic or natural products (24%).

• One in four consumers (23%) want more information about annual vs. perennial flowers, 22% want information on vegetable gardening, 20% on pest control, 19% on weed control, and 19% on organic gardening.

• When comparing 2006 to 2007, more Americans have no plan to save water this year (31% in 2006 vs. 39% in 2007)

• Almost half (47%) do some form of container gardening.

• This summer, about half of consumers will use their garden for relaxation or as a spiritual retreat (48%). More than a quarter of consumers are planning to use their garden or yard for food production or as a children’s area (28% and 26%, respectively).

For more details, get your copy of the 2007 Summer Gardening Trends Research Report today. The summer gardening survey was conducted in June and covers consumer expectations and attitudes for activities and purchases planned for the next few months. The survey was conducted by TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence, a national consumer polling organization, and statistically represents the attitudes of 110 million households with an accuracy of 95% (+/- 3.1 percentage points).

Improving the quality of out-of-school time activities and creating effective learning environments is of keen interest to practitioners, funders and policymakers. Funded by The William Penn Foundation, Quality Time After School identifies characteristics of after-school activities that are linked to youth engagement and learning across a rich diversity of out-of-school-time activity areas.

Drawing from surveys and interviews with more than 400 participants and instructors from five Philadelphia-based Beacon Centers, the report’s findings highlight the importance of two features of high-quality activities: good group management and positive adult support of learning. Building on analyses of over 50 detailed activity observations, as well as key lessons from past research, the report also suggests a road map for program operators and policymakers to create engaging learning environments in after-school programs.

To read the executive summary, please click here .

From the 2007 Late Spring Gardening Trends Research Report .

The Garden Writers Association Foundation is pleased to announce the release of the 2007 Late Spring Gardening Trends Research Report with some very interesting insights on this year’s consumer gardening attitudes and expectations for the current spring months:

1. Better mental health, nutrition or fitness is the primary reason 31% of households garden.

2. The two leading additions households plan to make to their garden this spring are more perennials (38%) and more vegetables (34%). Adding more annuals is favored by 31% of households.

3. The number of consumers planning to increase their lawn area dropped from 16% in 2006 to 9% in 2007 while the number planning to decrease their lawn area rose slightly from 9% in 2006 to 10% in 2007.

4. More households plan to use weed control this spring (39% in 2006 vs. 47% in 2007) while plans for insect control remains the same at one of every four households (24%).

5. The most significant change in spring garden preparation is the increase in consumer plans to “Fertilize Only” which rose from 19% in 2006 to 31% in 2007.

6. This spring and summer, one in four households plan to prepare their garden area with store-bought soil mixes (27%).

For more details, get your copy of the 2007 Late Spring Gardening Trends Research Report today. It is now available online FREE TO ALL GWA MEMBERS. Simply visit the Garden Writers Association website at www.gardenwriters.org and select the Gardening Trends Research tab. For further information, contact the GWA at 703.257.1032 or info@gardenwriters.org.

A new issue of the journal of Applied Environmental Education & Communication has been published, the entire volume of which is devoted to children’s gardening. More exciting research-based justification of the value of our work!

The special issue about children’s gardening is available online here.

You can see all the abstracts, order individual article copies or entire volume copies on the websites. CCE educators contact Lori or Marcia if you’d like to borrow a copy to read the full article.

Articles include:

Fostering Children’s Interests in Gardening
Authors: Kristi S. Lekies; Marcia Eames Sheavly

Teaming Children and Elders to Grow Food and Environmental Consciousness
Authors: Jolie Mayer-Smith; Oksana Bartosh; Linda Peterat

Growing Youth Growing Food: How Vegetable Gardening Influences Young People’s Food Consciousness and Eating Habits
Author: Kimberly Libman