If they grow it, chances are they’ll eat it, too.
Kids at PS 276 celebrated a Harvest Day Festival on Oct. 15 by picking fruits, vegetables, and herbs from the ripe soil of their schoolyard, after planting the seeds in June as part of an American Heart Association program designed to get kids eating right.
“The kids learn the basics of gardening, and part of the program encourages overall healthy eating,” said Meredith Coon, the American Heart Association’s regional director of communications. “So, the hope is that if they plant the tomatoes, they’ll go home and eat them.”
More than 100 young scholars and burgeoning gardeners participated in the program, called Teaching Gardens, in a plot that took up half the block on Avenue K between E. 82nd and E. 83rd streets in Canarsie.
There, the kids grew tomatoes, mint leaves, cucumber, string beans, parsley, watermelon, and cabbage, before harvesting their crops on Tuesday and taking home of portion of the yield.
Based on the kids’ reactions to the crops, it looks like the program is doing some good, according to Coon.
“I was talking to a few of them, and they were like, ‘I love tomatoes now!’ ” said Coon. “It was so cute.”
