SAVANNAH, Ga.–Center Parc Credit Union and the Savannah Urban Garden Alliance (SUGA) have partnered with six Savannah elementary schools to create a recipe cookbook documenting the students’ first vegetable garden.
The project kicked off at Butler Elementary School with an announcement from the participating schools, SUGA, and Center Parc discussing the process of putting the cookbook together.
Approximately 500 students from Butler, Windsor Forest, Heard, Gould, Brock Elementary and Hodge elementary schools will participate in a recipe writing content and 15 students will be selected to have their recipes published along with their artwork.
Below, from left: Megan Breese, teacher at Butler Elementary; Donna Williams, community development liaison, Center Parc Credit Union; Jennifer Drey, school garden liaison for SUGA, Nicole Funk, SUGA school garden management, Dorothy Dupree, school nutrition coordinator, Dr. Latila Slay, principal at Butler Elementary
SUGA partners with schools, farmers, philanthropists, local businesses, and volunteers to increase access to and knowledge of urban gardening practices in order to provide local citizens with access to fresh produce, healthy food, and a self-sustaining knowledge base that effectively eliminates food deserts.
In launching this recipe book, Center Parc and SUGA said they aim to offer healthy habits to Chatham County youth as well as provide participating elementary students with an opportunity to create a record of their vegetable gardening experience through their very own recipe book.
“Many scientific studies have shown that school gardens can combat childhood obesity by increasing fruit and vegetable intake,” said Donna Williams, Community Development Liaison with Center Parc Credit Union. “About 18% of Georgia’s 10-to-17-year-olds are estimated to be obese, and we want to get ahead of that trend by gardening with children in younger grades.”
About 16% of Chatham County’s children are food insecure, according to the Coastal Georgia Indicators Coalition.
“School gardens also help with food insecurity by teaching children to grow their own food,” Williams said. “Before the pandemic, Feeding America estimated that one in five children in Chatham County did not have a reliable source of nutritious food, and we expect that has only gotten worse during the pandemic.”
The recipe book will be available at the participating schools before the holiday break.