Success Story4-H Junior and Mini Master Gardeners Learn Health and Nutrition from the Garden through Virtual Programming



4-H Junior and Mini Master Gardeners Learn Health and Nutrition from the Garden through Virtual Programming

Author: Alexandria Bryant

Planning Unit: Breckinridge County CES

Major Program: Health

Plan of Work: Improving community wellness through nutrition, physical activity and safety

Outcome: Intermediate Outcome

The need for nutrition education is great in Kentucky, as it is a relatively poor state with a heavy burden of chronic disease related to poor nutrition practices. The Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey provides data on overweight Kentucky youth and reveals that our youth rank 15.6% compared to the nationwide 12.7%.  From a dietary standpoint less than 20% of high school students meet the dietary recommendation for fruit and vegetable consumption.  In 2014, the Breckinridge County Extension Office in collaboration with the Hardinsburg Public Library began a Junior Master Gardener program to introduce youth to fresh fruits and vegetables and teach youth how to grow and prepare their own fruits and veggies at home. The 4-H Jr. Master Gardener program targeting 4th-8th grade youth has continued to grow and expanded to include “mini master gardeners” in preschool through 3rd grade. In 2020, 30 youth graduated from the program, completing the 10-week virtual, summer program with a minimum of 18 hours of education. The program was taught by 2 Master Gardeners, 4 Extension staff, and 2 Breckinridge County Public Library staff virtually through weekly Zoom meetings and daily video lessons on a Facebook group. Video lessons included stories, songs led by local teen leaders, healthy recipe demonstrations, and hands-on gardening projects. Youth participants received project supplies to follow along with lessons taught virtually. Teaching resources included the 4-H Jr. Master Gardener Curriculum – Health and Nutrition in the Garden, as well as, JMG Early Childhood Curriculum, MyPlate, and SNAPed curricula. Activities taught planting techniques, plant requirements, structures and functions of plant parts, thrifty gardening, herbs, soils, and insects in the garden. Three sessions were dedicated solely to healthy fruit and vegetable options, including the Farmer’s Market, food preparation, nutrition, and kitchen safety. After completing the virtual lessons, youth completed a qualtrics post-survey. Results indicated youth gained a better understanding of plant needs (100%), felt confident they could plant their own garden at home (100%), felt more confident in their gardening skills such as planting, weeding, and watering (100%), could identify sand, silt, and clay soil types (100%), could label the parts of a plant and their function (100%), could identify different herbs (100%), could explain how beneficial insects help a garden (100%), could provide examples of pollinators (100%), and also able to describe how honeybees live and work in a hive (100%). The incorporation of stories into the program in 2020 led to youth reporting (100%) an increase in the number of books read during the summer. All respondents (100%) indicated they started their own garden at home, could explain the benefits of the Farmer’s Market, and tried a new fruit, vegetable, or herb (100%). Additionally, 86% of youth tried the recipes demonstrated virtually with their families at home. Families shared that youth “loved being a part of the program this year. They learned so much, I cannot wait to do it again next year” and “(virtual program) kept our mind on learning about gardening skills, we plan to start a new garden in the spring and use the knowledge from this year’s session.”






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