Successful Plant Days at Two Houston Area Schools

On March 21, two new Teaching Gardens at Houston area schools were officially launched with "Plant Day". Schools receiving the gardens are Crespo Elementary of Houston ISD, sponsored in part by a $250,000 Teaching Gardens’ grant from national funder MetLife Foundation, and James Bowie Elementary of Goose Creek CISD, sponsored locally by San Jacinto Methodist Hospital and their three-year commitment to the organization’s My Heart. My Life platform.  

It is a real life laboratory where students learn how to plant seeds, nurture the growing plants, harvest the food and ultimately understand the value of good eating habits and the importance of physical activity. Childhood obesity continues to be one of our nation’s urgent health threats.  Today, one in three children and adolescents in the U.S. is overweight or obese.

With the addition of these two new gardens, the American Heart Association will now have three in the Houston area, with many more planned in the coming years. Cy-Fair ISD’s Bane Elementary served as one of the organization’s pilot locations in 2011.

“We are thrilled to have been selected to receive an American Heart Association Teaching Garden and thankful for MetLife Foundation,” said Jose Sarabia, Principal of Crespo Elementary.  “This opportunity gives our children hands-on experience and an interactive nutrition curriculum that can help produce life-long, heart-healthy habits.”For more information about the Teaching Gardens program and how you can participate, visit www.heart.org/teachinggardens.   

The American Heart Association Teaching Gardens, founded by Kelly Meyer, is an innovative national, school-based program to re-establish what it means to be healthy.  Aimed at elementary school students, the Teaching Garden program provides hands-on learning experiences rooted in offering nutritional choices.