New York City kids can now show their parents how to plant a tomato.
Through a new series of children’s programs, kids are learning how to grow vegetables in schools.
Funded with help from the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City, Grow to Learn has equipped 60 schools with gardens since the 1970s. The goal is a garden in every school.
Out of 1,600 schools, fewer than 300 host gardens, according to GrowNYC, which helps students get a green thumb.
At one garden in the Bronx, children were able to harvest broccoli, herbs and peppers in a garden near their school.
Earth Day New York is also building tabletop gardens for schools, starting with five in May and June and planning to put them in 200 schools next year, in partnership with the Birds Nest Foundation and the United States of Food.
Earth Day New York founder Pamela Lippe hopes the gardens will spur a food revolution, teaching New Yorkers from the ground up about healthy food.
“We think that this indoor school garden is a real fantastic innovation,” Lippe said.
Each garden kit includes a waist-high garden, soil, seedlings and a grow light to serve as an indoor sun.
Follow Alison Bowen on Twitter at @AlisonatMetro.
