2018 Hunger and Health Summit

The Wisconsin School Garden Network was established in April of 2016. Over the past year and a half, we have connected with hundreds of school, early care and education, and afterschool members across Wisconsin, providing trainings, technical assistance, and resources on how to create and maintain school and community youth gardens. Through our experience, we have gathered not only evidence-based practices but practice-based evidence, to support the connection between school gardens and improvement of children's health. In the beginning part of my presentation I will share some of this evidence, including stories from the field and relevant research studies.  In the second part of my presentation, I will share about how we took this evidence and worked to share it with school districts around Wisconsin to improve districts wellness policies. Wellness policies are designed to provide guidance for improving the health and wellbeing of students and communities. In 2004, Congress passed the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act. This act required schools participating in child nutrition programs to create local school wellness policies by the 2006-2007 school year. The Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010 added new implementation, evaluation, and progress reporting provisions for school wellness policies. In 2016, the USDA finalized regulations to create a framework and guidelines for written wellness policies. The final rule requires schools to begin revising their school wellness policies during the 2016-2017 school year.  Seeing the final rule as an opportunity to educate people about the numerous health benefits of educational gardening, the Wisconsin School Garden Network has reached out to many school districts around Wisconsin. We are working to share our findings about the impact school gardens can have on the health and wellbeing of students. I will share the successes and challenges we have faced in communicating with schools and give tips to others interested in supporting policy changes in their districts. The policies approved by school boards have the power to support the actions of school teachers and staff. Together, we can help support policies that lead to a healthier Wisconsin.

Healthy Early (formerly the Wisconsin Early Childhood Obesity Prevention Initiative) is a statewide collaborative begun in 2008 to promote physical activity and good nutrition in the ECE (Early Care & Education) world. We have successfully added language and criteria in our state child care rating system, YoungStar that rewards child care programs for implementing health & wellness policies around gardening, family engagement, and nutrition. For the past few years we have been part of the launch of the WI Farm to ECE project, with funding the Kellogg Foundation. We are actively encouraging child care providers to engage kids in both policies and practices that promote sourcing and eating local good food, taste tests, farm/farmer visits, nutrition education, gardening, and family engagement. Come hear how the power of policy is changing the lives of our youngest citizens and getting them hooked on veggies for life!