Entertainment, sports, and culinary stars united on March 22 to launch the Teaching Garden, a program focused on nutrition and fitness education for young children at Kelso Elementary School in Inglewood.
The program was piloted at Point Dume Marine Science School, where marine and environmental sciences are integrated with organic gardening to promote ecologically sound food and lifestyle choices.
Along with Teaching Garden founder and Malibu resident Kelly Meyer, professional volleyball player and Malibu resident Gabrielle Reece, Los Angeles Laker Derek Fisher, Iron Chef’s Cat Cora and actor Tobey Maguire were at Kelso Elementary to launch the program.
Additionally, students from Point Dume Marine Science School, led by Principal Chi Kim, communicated digitally via Skype with Kelso students. The children from Point Dume, who have already created their Teaching Garden, offered tips and advice to their counterparts at Kelso Elementary to successfully complete their own.
Inspired by First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign, Meyer created the “Teaching Garden” to reinforce these ideals by creating a living laboratory.
In this garden, students, through the simple process of putting a seed into the earth, nurturing it and ultimately harvesting the food, will learn about efforts and results, delayed gratification and cause and effect. The ultimate goal: hands-on exploration of life sciences that lead to one’s positive choices for health and fitness.
The goal for the “Teaching Garden” is to create a network of 1,000 schools within the next two years that will have implemented the program, sharing curriculum, ideas and communicating with each other.
More information can be obtained online at www.takepart.com/teachinggarden.