Good Food For All Kids? A garden at every school!

[Ethan X]

Dear all youth food movers & shakers,

I wanted to see if I could get your quick help. I recently submitted my dream, "Good Food For All Kids: A Garden at Every School," in the Change.org 2010 Ideas for Change in America competition. This idea is currently in 4th place, but we are only a small number of votes away from taking the lead to advance to the next (and final) round of the competition. I thought you might be excited to help support this idea! You can cast your vote by clicking the following link: http://www.change.org/ideas/view/good_food_for_all_kids_a_garden_at_every_school_2

The top 10 voted ideas will be presented at an event in Washington, DC this spring to relevant members of the Obama Administration, and then promoted to Change.org's full community of more than 1 million people. So we could have a real impact.

Thanks for your help! Coincidentally, this month I started volunteering as a school gardening teacher's assistant for a Washington, DC 3rd grade class -- so I have personal knowledge of how educational and beneficial to kids a school garden can be. I want all children in the U.S. to be able to enjoy the experience of learning and eating from a school garden!

Your vote can truly help turn this idea of "universal school gardens" into a reality! PLEASE VOTE!

Here's the full text of the idea: Good Food For All Kids: A Garden at Every School

The diet of America's youth needs to improve. Hunger, bad nutrition and obesity among children are leading causes of health risks and often contributes to poor classroom performance. By planting a garden at every school in America, we will ensure that every child has the opportunity to benefit from eating more fresh healthy foods. A well-planned edible schoolyard can supply a significant portion of a school's daily food needs, By cultivating a garden together, children learn vital skills in team work, problem solving, creative planning, and sustainable living. Garden-based classes are a great way to complement classroom education in many subjects including biology, botany, ecology, mathematics, nutrition, art, and writing. Most important, gardening is fun for kids! School gardens can dramatically enliven the learning process by giving students the ability to connect in a very experiential and hands-on way with the incredible living world unfolding all around them. For all of these reasons and many more, let's support the vision for a garden growing at every school in America!

You may also want to do more to help us gain the most votes for this idea! 

  1. Email your friends: Contact your friends and encourage them to vote at Change.org for "Good Food For All Kids: A Garden at Every School."

  2. Use listserves: Forward this message on to other appropriate listserves or organizational email lists! 

  3. Spread the word with social media: Use social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook by sending the link to our idea for universal school gardens out through your own networks and encouraging others to do the same. In case you need it, here's a shorter link to our school gardens idea  ~ http://bit.ly/6glfIr

  4. Grab a widget: You can grab a widget and put it on your website or blog or encourage other bloggers to include it on theirs. You can find the widget on the right side of our idea page. ( http://www.change.org/ideas/view/good_food_for_all_kids_a_garden_at_every_school_2 )

Thanks for your vote! 

Sincerely,
Ethan Genauer,
On behalf of school garden teachers & kids everywhere!