Substantial increase in participating primary schools in Week of the School Garden

During the Week of the School Garden, organised by the School Garden Alliance and Young Learning Eat, children learn how to sow seeds and how plants grow. They grow their own vegetables and learn about healthy food, nature and biodiversity. “Especially at this time, when we are facing major challenges relating to nature, the climate and food production, it is important to let children discover how essential the soil and nature are to our food,” emphasises project leader Arjan Klopstra. “Learning to sow, care for and harvest contributes to a healthy generation with an awareness of nature.”

Record number of seeds sown

The motto of this year’s Week of the School Garden is: sow together, grow together. This week, pupils, teachers and school garden support staff will, among other things, sow a record number of seeds. Simple, accessible lessons have been developed for schools that do not have a school garden themselves. This year, the Golden Carrot will also be awarded for the second time to a municipality that is fully committed to school gardening. In 2022, during the first edition, the award went to the municipalities of Arnhem and Teylingen.

A school garden for every child

The School Garden Alliance and Young Learning Eat believe that every child in primary school should be able to work in a school garden. However, research by DUO (2021) shows that only one in five teachers has a school garden for their class. Although most teachers indicate that they would like to practise school gardening, they see no opportunities to do so. In addition, only a quarter of primary schools in our country have included school gardening as part of their educational programme. “That really needs to change. The school garden is an essential part of the school,” says Klopstra, who has seen interest in school gardens among schools and municipalities grow over the past year.

School Garden Alliance and Young Learning Eat

The School Garden Alliance and Young Learning Eat are committed to giving every child access to a school garden during their primary school years. Sowing, caring for and harvesting vegetables, fruit and flowers themselves contributes to greater knowledge of and engagement with food and nature. A school garden is a place where all children can flourish. The Alliance is an initiative of Adviesbureau Beleef & weet, Vereniging GDO (Network of local environmental education organisations), IVN Natuureducatie, Rob Baan (Koppert Cress) and Simon Groot (East-West Seed).