Vegetable gardens initiative supports teaching and school feeding in SVG

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in partnership with the Ministries of Agriculture and Education and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) initiated a programme in May 2022, which supported the establishment and operations of vegetable gardens at six primary schools across the island.

The participating primary schools totally 900 students were New Grounds Primary School, Argyle Primary School, Fair Hall Primary School, Cane End Government, Spring Village Methodist School, and the Paget Farm Government School.

The establishment of the vegetable gardens is part of the broader and innovative vision of the Resilient School Feeding Programme sub-project of the Mexico-CARICOM-FAO, “Cooperation for Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience in the Caribbean”. The main objective is to support the National School Feeding Programme of the Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and in particular, to support the establishment or rehabilitation of school gardens as a teaching tool for food and nutrition education.

As part of the programme of activities, cohorts of 20 to 60 sixty students from grades three to four and their assigned teachers received training on how to establish and care for vegetable gardens, land preparation and planting, harvesting and consumption. The students also got an opportunity to experiment with the vegetables harvested from the gardens as they assisted the cooks in preparing meals offered by the School Feeding Programme. Last March 2021, FAO hosted a workshop in which 18 cooks were trained and certified on methods of incorporating healthy meals for school lunches. Through this initiative, it is anticipated that students will also gain an interest in the agricultural sciences and consider a career in agriculture, especially given that there is an aging population of farmers across the Caribbean.

Speaking on the initiative, Laura Anthony Browne, FAO’s National Project Coordinator for the Resilient School Feeding Programme sub-project expressed satisfaction with the commencement of the programme. According to Browne, “Even as this programme was conceptualized and advanced as an important part of the SFP, it was such a pleasure to see the excitement of the children as they participate in the transplanting of seedlings and the caring of their crops. The enthusiasm of the participating teachers is also remarkable and provide the basis for the success of the initiatives”.

The school garden initiative is one of several activities of the sub-project executed in collaboration with the Ministries of Agriculture, Health and Education; and IICA. Other activities include training of farmers and fisher-folk who can support the school feeding programme, improvement of menu cycle, recipes and school nutrition standards, the development of procurement guidelines for the supply of local produce to schools, a nutritional assessment of students and conditioning works at the participating schools. All activities fall within the Mexico-CARICOM-FAO Initiative – Cooperation for climate change adaptation and Resilience in the Caribbean and funded by the Government of Mexico.

Several vegetables including corn, beans, cabbage, sweet peppers and lettuce are expected to be grown and harvested across the six school gardens, and will be added to  the local produce purchased from farmers for the  preparation of meals under the School Feeding Programme. The school gardens initiative will run until the end of October 2022, and will be included in the regular school curriculum.

For more information, please contact:

Laura Anthony Browne

National Project Coordinator - Resilient School Feeding Programme

FAO

Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines

E-mail: Laura.AnthonyBrowne@fao.org

Phone: 784 451 2652

Michael Dalton

Technical Specialist

IICA Delegation in St. Vincent and the Grenadines

E-mail: Michael.dalton@iica.int  

Phone: