The impact of a school garden on fruit and vegetable availability at home for elementary children

The primary purpose of this study was to explore the impact of a school garden on the home availability of FV and on household food security of elementary children. A secondary aim of the study was to examine the impact of both the school garden and parental FV consumption on children’s FV preferences and consumption. Nine third-grade students completed this study. T-tests and ANOVA assessed changes in outcomes before and after the school-garden program. Associations between the school-garden program, parental FV consumption, and children’s FV preferences and consumption were also examined. Results showed that vegetable consumption of parents was significantly associated with vegetable availability at home (p = 0.003) and vegetable consumption of children (p = 0.01) at the end of the school-garden program. Thus, future studies that further explore the impact of parental vegetable consumption on child vegetable consumption in the context of school gardens would be beneficial.